Rewrite Our Fallacy
by heart dipped in invisible ink
Summary: AU. White, the girl who was meant to be the trophy wife of Team Plasma's king. N, the boy who was destined for tragedy and failure. Touya, the idiot who could never manage to keep his mouth shut. Together, these three will take Unova by storm and rock its foundations. Disaster seems to be the only future in sight. N/White
1. Prelude

**A/N:** First off, I really wanted to flesh out N's character, especially considering some stories that I've read that puts him into a really bad light—those really made me want to cry. I mean, considering the environment that he grew up in, I don't think that it's his fault that he turned out the way he is. So this story is my attempt at that…yeah.

This is an AU story in which a young White was brought to N's Castle for the sole purpose of being the trophy wife to the future king. The story events follow a similar outline of the game's events, although the things that occur within it will be very different. N still wants to free Pokemon, Team Plasma is still hypocritical, and Geechisu is still an evil bastard; the only main difference is White's role.

Also, N has yet to have his coronation because he wants to set out on the journey first to prove to mostly himself that he deserves such a role.

Anyway…enjoy the story!

* * *

><p>She met him when she was five.<p>

The people who had brought her to the fairytale castle had told her that he was a prince. A true hero that would save the region. A promising future king.

But all that she could see was a timid green-eyed boy who knew nothing of the outside world.

"H-hello," was the first thing that he had said to her—although he had whispered it so softly that she had nearly missed his greetings.

They told her that she was to be his other half: his _queen_. She didn't really believe them because she had never liked the stories in which the heroine was swept away to live happily ever after with some unknown prince. But with no family to come back to, her five year old mind figured that it wouldn't hurt to try and believe.

So she took his hand and said:

"Hello."

o

They used to play games of fairy tales and make-believe. He was usually (almost always) the princess—he _did_ have the hair for it, after all—while her constant role was the knight with the boyishly short hair. They would both throw on their pretend personas and become someone else; they became who they wanted to be, and left what they were expected to become in the dust.

Eventually, their fake personas began to meld into their everyday lives.

The boy hero threw away his princely name and became the ambiguous N—an unspecific name; a name without a role to play.

Touko, the orphan with the set and unchanging role of princess, became White, a new beginning with a path of freedom to choose whatever she wanted.

But that was only the beginning.

o

"You shouldn't let your father push you around like that," White saidto the softly whimpering N, her skinny little arms crossed over the other in an act of defiance. "He shouldn't ever call you those terrible things. It isn't right."

"It's fine," the small boy mumbled and swiped the back of his palm under his runny nose. "He's always like this whenever he comes to visit."

"But it doesn't make it any better."

"I know it doesn't."

"Look," she grabbe his shoulders and stared him down until he stopped his tears, "I know it's hard, but you have to stand up for yourself; you can't keep letting him hurt you forever."

He laughed bitterly. "I wish I were more like you, White. Always so brave and defiant—it must be so easy for you to get your way."

And she couldn't help but wish that was true.

o

It was funny how easily a person was influenced by others.

Like the young, upstart recruits of Team Plasma. Or the people on the streets listening to the grandiose speeches of Geechisu. And even N, sweet and kind N who only knew of the world through his books.

She didn't know when it started to happen, but by the time she realized what was going on with her best friend, it was much too late to stop it.

They were both thirteen, young and impressionable—N even more so.

It was at the rare meetings with his father that she began to realize her influence on N.

It had started out all right—Geechisu was speaking to N about his duties and his roles, about how his coronation was drawing nearer, how the coming judgment day was to come. She didn't remember what set N off, maybe it was the way his father was pushing all those duties onto him, or maybe it was the way his father sneered and said how easily a defect like him could screw everything over—but whatever it was, it angered N. And for the first time in his life, the boy goes against his father.

At first there was a shocked silence; but then Geechisu suddenly stepped forward and swiped his fist across N's face in a fit of delirious anger.

"Wait! Please don't hurt him!" she begged, placing herself between the fallen N and Geechisu. "He doesn't mean it. I—

"You!" the man screamed. "You little bitch! How dare you get in the way; this isn't your place to interfere! Your only role is to be his queen—nothing more. I'll bet it's by your influence that this boy has been acting like such a spoiled fool!"

Geechisu stepped forward with a raised hand and she herself took a step back. White panicked. Everything was suddenly spiraling downhill much too quickly. "Sir—

"Shut up!" He glared at her with his blood red eyes and turned to the grunts standing guard outside the door. "Guards, take this girl away to the dungeon and keep her there until I give permission for her release."

"No, wait! Please!" she cried out in terror as they each took one of her arms and dragged her away. She sawa pained N reach his hand out to her and she tried to break free to run back to him, but it was all in vain.

Within seconds, he was gone from her view.

o

White emerged from the dungeon three days later a changed person.

"White!" N cried out in relief upon seeing her. There were black and blue marks everywhere on his skin, including the one on his right eye, as well as a slight limp to his left leg.

She herself was gaunt, pale, and cut up with whip marks.

The boy ran up to her and swept her into a gentle hug; but when he pulled back, even though he had lost all tears, she still had hers.

"White, what's wrong?" Concerned green eyes watched her as she stood immobile, sobbing silently before him. He took her to one of the red armchairs, sat her down, and patiently waited for her to calm down.

She could feel him watching her, examining every rip and tear that were visible on her body; and she positively hated it. All she could feel was shame. He had called her brave once, and she had taken it to heart and tried to live up to that notion. But here she was, crying her eyes out in front of him, remembering all the fear that she had felt in that cold, dark room full of silence and horror. She was supposed to be the brave one of the two—but that really wasn't true at all.

Brave people weren't supposed to _cry_.

o

"I was thinking of traveling Unova."

She looked at him for a moment, set her book down, and took a pen to her palm. _For how long?_

N shrugged. "I'm not sure yet, honestly; but if I am to save the Pokémon of this world, then I should learn about their evil captors as well. It's kind of like the saying: keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."

White nodded in agreement and then turned back to her book with a differential air.

She heard a loud scraping sound and from the corner of her eye, she saw N pull up a nearby chair to sit next to her. The young prince did not speak, so the mute girl in turn said nothing, refusing to say anything until she was expected to.

She was rewarded with her patience when N finally spoke again. "I was...I was hoping that you would join me, White."

_Why?_

"Because you're my best friend," he said with a hint of annoyance—it was all too clear that her frigid attitude was finally getting to him. "At least I thought you were—but you've changed so much these past three years. I hardly know who you are anymore—

_Alright._

"Huh?"

White simply shook her head in exasperation. _I meant that I'll come with you._

"You will?" N practically shook with excitement. "Really?"

_Yes_.

Suddenly she found herself being lifted off of her chair and being spun around by N—and with her pen lying innocently on the floor besides the desk, White was left with only one option. She whacked the side of his head with her inky hand—but the force of the impact didn't faze the teen and they continued to spin around to a dance with a beat only known to N.

After a moment of hesitance, White allowed her body to relax and let the boy with the infectious smile to lead her to the rhythm.

And in that moment, they were just ordinary people with no care for the world around them.


	2. Intentions and Secrets

A/N: Oh my…an update? Well, I finally got around to finishing this chapter. Cue grand applause and fireworks. That only took forever and a half. Haha.

But anyways, after that first chapter (which set up tons of foreshadowing and background info), we finally start N and White's journey across Unova. Cue another round of applause.

Just a side note, some things may seem a bit confusing at first, missing tiny details and the like, but as the story progresses, (hopefully) things will start to get clearer—with the help of Clean & Clear of course! Just kidding. But seriously.

The way this story is told, it won't be in perfect sequential order. There will be some backtracking in some chapters in order to make sense of things and stuff, just a fair warning. And if there are still some unexplained things that are still confusing, I might just explain it in the A/N's section if I somehow can't find a way to incorporate it directly into the story.

Just a quick question: Do you guys think that it would be better if the story was told in strictly third-person? Or is it better if the POV jumps around? Just wondering, I don't think it will really affect the way I format the story, but I'm kinda curious to hear your opinion.

But anyways, enjoy the story!

* * *

><p>There was no grand procession the day that they left the castle. There were no sincere farewells, wishes of luck, kind and wise smiles—instead, there was only an eerie silence and an imaginary crowd of well-wishers.<p>

The only people that were there were the two travelers and their familiar caretakers.

"Stay safe," Anthea and Concordia chorused as they each handed a bag full of carefully packed belongings to the two adolescents.

N and White both bid their farewells, and with one last look at the castle that had been their home all their lives, they began their journey, marching proudly down the wild, forested path and into the wilds of Unova.

o

"I met a boy today," N began as she situated herself by the fire that he had started. "It was strange."

She kept quiet, but her silence spoke questioningly: _Why?_

"I…I don't know. Just his whole entire personality—he was so _strange_. And when I battled him—his Pokémon had such a strong attachment to him even though he had only started his journey." He finally turns to White with such perplexed expression, emotions jumbled to a fine mix. "White…I had never believed such a thing to possible, but this mere boy—

_It's not impossible, N. Not every trainer in the world is a terrible person—there are good trainers out there, too_—was what she wanted to write to him. And even though she knew that they were thousands of miles away from Geechisu, White couldn't help but feel tremendously terrorized by the thought of saying something like that to N. Especially when the ever constant presence of the Dark Trinity seemed to be closing in on them in with unnerving sense of pressure.

Frustrated, he burrowed his hands into his hair and pulled at it in aggravation, sending green locks into a flurry of disarray. "You've seen all our friends that were abused cruelly by their trainers, White! You of all people should understand where I'm coming from. The whole entire reason for this journey was to learn more of the imprisonment of Pokémon—but now I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not what they _want_. And I feel like a terrible traitor for thinking that."

She had to say something—she couldn't just leave him in such a fit of torment…and yet why was she hesitating? Was she that scared of Geechisu and his minions?

Stupid, she berated herself inwardly, you're supposed to be his friend—you shouldn't be hesitating over these kinds of things.

So why—

"White," long, slender hands enclosed over hers, "your hands are shaking—what's wrong?"

White grimaced over her cowardly actions and fought the urge to smack herself. N looked at her with a concerned mien, eyebrows furrowed in confusion and head tilted to the side innocently.

"Are you okay?"

She began to nod in acquiescence before halting when remembering how terribly N hated liars—she would be betraying his trust if she said yes.

_No, not really_, she traces instead, _but don't worry about it. A good night's sleep might do the trick for me, so I'm going to turn in for the night. Make sure you do the same._

"Alright," said N with doubt in his eyes. "Good night, White."

She smiled gently at him before falling asleep with a heavy heart.

oo

The first time that she met Touya was near the Battle Subway with N. Touya had spotted N first, and before either of them knew it, the energetic teen was in front of them chattering away without a care in the world.

N had been more lax with him, all because of the fact that they had already met before. White on the other hand, had been tense and wary, constantly—for the first time in her life—feeling like the third-wheel.

There had been a terrible, insipid feeling of jealousy that bled into her beating heart—and she wondered why she was reacting so strongly to N's odd _friend_.

Was it because she felt threatened by Touya's presence? Was she threatened by the fact that her only friend was being taken away from her? Was it selfish of her to act this way?

But before she could sift anymore through these thoughts, the heavy threatening presence of the Dark Trinity closed in on her and pulled her away.

o

"Do you think what I'm doing is right, White?"

_What do you mean?_

"I mean, do you maybe think that there may be a possibility that our friends may be _happy_ with their situations? That perhaps, the Pokémon may not _want_ to be freed by us? I can't help but feel traitorous for thinking this but, after meeting Touya and talking to the Pokemon he travels with, I've been plagued by strange thoughts."

_N…_

"You've seen his Pokémon, haven't you White? I mean, I know that you can't properly understand them like I do, but I know that you can comprehend their language just enough to get by—and didn't they seem content with being with Touya and being imprisoned? It's just so mind boggling as to how they can love that trainer so much in such a short period of time. Was this journey of ours a terrible mistake? Have I been wrong all along—

_No!_

White clutched at his hand in desperation.

"White?"

_It's alright to be confused, N. But please don't say anything else—Geechisu may become angry if he hears such thoughts coming from you._

o

_Please stop talking to N._

At first there is only confusion, but then something clicks into place and I suddenly feel a twinge of annoyance at White for ordering me around—_as if _I_ owed her anything in the first place._

"Why? What's so wrong with trying to be his friend? And why are you telling me this of all people? If N doesn't want me to talk to him, then shouldn't he be telling me this to my face instead of you?" I demand.

For a short phase of time, it seems as if White is locked in a deep and bitter turmoil with herself, but that soon fades away into a look of strained calm.

She writes something down and then shows it to me with a flourish of her hand.

_It's for the best if you do what I ask._

I can feel my eyes narrow at her and her elusiveness in irritation as I say, "I still don't understand…what's so wrong with me talking to N? You're not making any sense at all!"

Her eyes became sharp slits, her lips forming a sharp, distasteful frown. _Or maybe it's because you're too stupid to understand anything you're told._

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I snap back.

_Exactly what it says on the paper—or are you too dumb to be able to read?_

We both stand up at the same time, both of us pent up with annoyance and frustration. What's her _problem_?

"He's my friend too!" I shout angrily. "And you're not the boss of me—I should be able to do whatever what I want. Who the hell do you think you _are_?"

The cart of the ferris wheel that we are in wobbles precariously by our sudden movements—and for a moment, I am afraid of falling to my death.

_I want to help accomplish N's goal of saving his captured friends—and Geechisu has given me a place by his side in order to do that. I won't fail, I won't let N down nor will I allow anybody to hurt him ever again._

Maybe it is the way that her face's features contort and combine with her anger to create a sort of dangerous beauty, that makes me feel a cold tremor trail down my spine despite the heat inside the ride. But whatever it is, it makes my hands tremble slightly at the razor-sharp glint in her eyes. "Who…who are you?"

_I…_, her head tilts away from me and she watches the sun slowly make its way across the sky to rest behind the towering sand dunes of the desert in the distance. The golden rays hit the window behind her and the light refracts into a million shards that dance across her skin—my breath hitches in my throat—and her eyes finally return to me, bright blue orbs that give me a cold calculating look. That look shatters the pristine image that I had held in that moment and sends me reeling back to reality.

_I am the queen of Team Plasma._


	3. Empty Paradise

Not much to say here, so...

Enjoy the story!

* * *

><p>"Lady Touko," began one of the members of the Dark Trinity. "As you know, we have been keeping track of your journey with Lord N, and all of our viewings have been reported to Geechisu."<p>

At this, White kept a stony silence.

"Geechisu is not entirely pleased with Lord N's interactions with a certain…_trainer_," continued the one to the left, stressing out the last word with great distaste. "However, he is willing to overlook this fault if you are able to remove this boy's influence on Lord N."

Although she was not entirely happy with this potentially threatening predicament, White relented, but not before asking:

_Why couldn't you have confronted N about this?_

"Because Geechisu feels that it is too early to get involved with Lord N's journey. He believes that a problem like this could easily be solved by us, but has decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you to deal with the problem as you see fit."

A dark shadow of anger crossed her face but then disappeared, a look of indifference taking over.

_So what if I fail his expectations?_

"Then we will take over the task."

_And who will be hurt in the process? Me? N? The trainer?_ Her left hand clasped at her dress tightly, hidden within its white material to hide its furious trembling. _You're not going to kill an innocent bystander like him are you?_

In unison, all three men tilted their heads and their eyes crinkled as if they were smiling behind their black masks.

"Perhaps."

o

_Please stop talking to N._

He blinks confusedly at me for a moment before asking, "Why? What's so wrong with trying to be his friend? And why are you telling me this of all people? If N doesn't want me to talk to him, then shouldn't he be telling me this to my face instead of you?"

Because you're a bad influence on him. Because I'm trying to protect him from Geechisu's anger. Because I don't want history to repeat itself. Because I don't like you. Because I feel like every time he talks to you, he begins to drift further and further away from me—and I don't want that.

I clench my hands tightly to keep myself from writing out all of these reasons to him. Keep things simple, White, I tell myself. Don't make things complicated by getting him involved in our lives.

Flipping the paper over and starting anew, I jot across the page, _It's for the best if you do what I ask,_ and show it to him.

The boy's eyebrows furrow in utmost confusion. "I still don't understand…what's so wrong with me talking to N? You're not making any sense at all!"

Why? Why was he so damned obstinate and stubborn? Why was it so hard to get it through his stupid skull that he was an obstacle—no, a _threat_ to N? This boy, _Touya_—I can't help but frown in distaste at his name—he was dangerous.

_Or maybe it's because you're too stupid to understand anything you're told._

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

_Exactly what it says on the paper—or are you too dumb to be able to read?_

I can't stop myself from snapping back at him—it's not exactly anger and hatred that fuels me and it's definitely not affection towards him either.

But…I think that it is more like fear—fear for N's safety. It's sad to say this, but any threat to N has always set me on edge and turned me into a terrible monster. This terrifying revelation weighs down on me as if the world was forced down on my shoulders. But I can't stop, not now. Not when N needs me most.

_I want to help accomplish N's goal of saving his captured friends—and Geechisu has given me a place by his side in order to do that. I won't fail, I won't let N down nor will I allow anybody to hurt him ever again._

I would do anything for N—fight, steal, and even kill. I know that my devotion is unhealthy and borderline insane, but he's all I have; and I know that I'm the only person that N can count on.

"Who…who are you?"

If I give up on N, then who will protect him?

_I…_

Who will he have left to turn to?

**No one.**

Emboldened, I turn back to face Touya, because come what may, I won't stop protecting N.

_I am the queen of Team Plasma._

Even if it kills me.

oo

N had a terrible tendency to wander off. It had happened on many occasions—too many to count, actually. She had come to learn this fact the hard way; and no matter how many times that N had gone astray to Arceus knows where, the tedious experience of relocating him never got any better.

The fact that White had lost him within a sea of writhing and moving bodies bathed in bright neon twinkling lights from above simply did not help.

Three hours had already passed, and she still found herself fretfully weaving in and out of the multitude of people, as she continued her fruitless search for her childhood friend.

Angry thoughts continued to flit across her mind. How could he have run off without telling her? Didn't he care about how she felt?

Of course he does, White berated herself silently, and he's always cared about me. But the thing with N was that if she wanted him to understand or know how she felt, then she would have to tell him in a straightforward manner. She could never expect him to infer or to read between the lines.

He may have been a genius, but that was in everything except the matters of the heart.

The streets of Raimon City were wide and long, and on each side of the streets were bright white pathway lights that trailed down the seemingly never-ending paths. The sun had set a long time ago, and now that the sky had turned black with the pale, slim crescent of the moon in the sky, the weather had gone from a tolerable, chilly temperature to downright freezing. White shuddered slightly against the cold and ruefully tugged at the thin layer of her sweater thinking all the while that she probably should have chosen a better set of clothing before going out.

Not that moaning over about it will help to keep the warmth in, she thought miserably and trudged on, ignoring the pointed looks thrown her way as she shoved through the throngs of tourists in a callous manner.

Where could N have gone to? Hopefully he hadn't run into any trouble—but what if…but what if he did? What if he had gone and done something incredibly stupid? Like drown in a water fountain? Or fall into a hole or a ditch that he couldn't climb out of? The possibilities were endless and only served to further her panic.

Arceus, White begged, if you really do exist, _please_ keep N out of trouble and stop him from doing anything stupid. He's the type of person who would jump in front of a car to save a Lillipup—

"—brat! Did you honestly think that it would be okay to try and steal that from me?"

White paused in her tracks at the sound of a high pitched cry and the chorus of snickers that followed after. She was a few blocks down from where the Ferris wheel's bright lights shone against the dark backdrop of the sky, the once loud onslaught of chatter and laughter now a monotonous hum. There were very few street lamps in the area she had wandered into, so when she stopped to get a hold of her bearings, the dimness of the narrow street made it hard for White to see. After a few more seconds, she was able to notice the small little gate that seemed to serve as an entrance for a playground.

"Come on! Don't you have anything to say for yourself, you ugly freak?" a boyish voice mocked.

There was a bout of silence in which the voice waited for its victim to respond but only received silence as an answer.

"Hey! Are you stupid or something? Can't you talk?"

"Yeah! Why don't you just say you're sorry and give back the berries?"

"H-hey! What the…?"

"How'd he manage to swallow all of that?"

"Like that matters! He just ate all my oran berries!"

Then there was the sound of scuffling shoes, a thwack, and then a low, pitiful cry.

Moving in the direction of the voices, White pushed open the gate and peered into the darkness. And there, near the small alcove in the awkward and contorted shape of some kind of Pokémon, was a group of small children that couldn't have been much older than ten, all huddled around something—or rather, she suddenly realized, some_one_.

There was a loud noise of laughter as the tallest boy gestured his hands wildly into the air; seemingly emboldened by this response, the boy then bent down to shove at the small child on the ground, only to find himself stumbling backwards and landing on his back only a short moment later.

"He pushed him! He pushed him!" a shrill, girlish voice shrieked in despair, completely and utterly scandalized at what had just passed before her eyes.

Quickly, White moved away from the gated entrance and started towards the group, her sneakers slapping loudly against the gravel path, with the intention of preventing an oncoming fight. All at once, the cluster of children immediately stopped their rising babble and bickering at the sudden sound of her appearance.

"Was that…?" someone began hesitantly.

"Someone's coming! Everybody, run!"

Squealing like wild Pokémon, the black shadows burst apart from each other and scurried off in different directions, leaving the small, prone form on the ground. And although White wanted nothing more than to chase after them, she decided that helping the boy that they had bullied was a much higher priority. Her shoes skidded to a stop when she was a mere feet away from the child and she knelt down beside him to get a closer look.

From what she could tell from the dim lighting, there was no major injury or blood—but despite that, even with her strained eyes, she could see the dark shape shaking. Was he hurt? Worried, her hand reached out to gently grasp the boy's shoulder. But the moment her fingers settled around his shoulder, the boy let out a feral cry and slapped her hand away from him, his legs pushing against the ground to make as much space between as possible.

White's heart froze and her lungs forgot how to breathe.

Because that was when she finally saw his face. The face that had become so familiar to her during her childhood days. But it couldn't be…even though the boy was the splitting image of him as a child, it just wasn't possible…

"N?" she hoarsely whispered to the strange child with vicious eyes.

He was exactly like him, but at the same time, he was completely different.

Almost subconsciously, White's hand reached out to touch his face in wonder, but before she could even get closer, the child—or was it N?—sprinted past her back into the empty streets and ducked into the nearest alleyway that probably lead back to the bustling streets of Raimon, the darkness chasing after him and swallowing him up until there was nothing left but emptiness.

oo

It wasn't hard for her to chase after N—no, she thought to herself as she skidded around a corner and burst out into the streets of the amusement park, not N. Definitely not N.

Then why—

Something cold caught and wrapped around her wrist, and White nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden shock.

"White!"

Blue eyes met green the moment White spun around on her heels to face him.

She wanted to let out a sigh of relief, to wrap her arms around N and never let go, to cry because she had thought that he had fallen down some _damn_ _manhole_ on a random street, because damn it all, she was just so _relieved_.

But she didn't do any of this, because as much as she was relieved, she was just as angry.

N seemed to notice the baleful glare directed at him and tried to pacify her.

"Are you okay?" He immediately winced when White ripped her hand out of his grasp, as if she had physically struck him. "Look, I know you're mad but—

_How could you have just _abandoned_ me like that? It didn't cross your mind to at least tell me that you had to do something? Honestly N, you can be so oblivious!_ She angrily traced the words to him, tugging at his arm harshly, but then immediately stopped when she felt his arm jerk back. She stilled when her fingertips met something wet, and it felt all wrong to her, so, so _wrong._

_Your shoulder…it's bleeding…_, she said to him with wide eyes and shaking hands.

"That?" N gave her what he hoped to be a convincing smile. "Oh it's just a little scratch. Nothing to worry about."

White was not entirely convinced by this. She moved to take a closer look at the gaping cut running down the side of his shoulder but stopped when a snarl emitted from somewhere behind N.

Her eyes flitted downward towards to the source and White nearly backed away in surprise at the sight. Because there, crouched behind her best friend's legs, was the same boy she had found in the park earlier; sharp, narrow green eyes whittled down her worried frown until it was just a thin line of confusion.

"_…human_," she hears the child snarl.

"This is Zorua," began N, as he eased away from White's slackened grip. "He used play with me in the forest surrounding the castle when I was little. Well, at least until Geechisu told me that I couldn't go out of the castle anymore. I rescued him from a Lepardas near the forest outside Raimon City a few hours ago—which was how I got this scratch on my shoulder."

_But…_, she turned to look at the boy—completely and utterly _human_, she couldn't help but note. _He looks exactly like _you_._

"It's part of his ability," explains N. "His species can take on the appearance of any living thing by creating illusions."

Curiously, White bent down to be at eyelevel with Zorua and held out her hand for him to shake. What she didn't expect was for Zorua to slap her hand and forcefully push her away from him—for the umpteenth time, a small, sarcastic voice noted at the back of her mind—growling out:

"_…away! Stay away…humans…evil—_

"Nononono," N frantically babbled to Zorua, pushing the Pokémon away from White before anymore damage could be done. "It's okay, Zorua! She's a good person, don't hurt her."

"_…all the same,_" White heard Zorua say from her position on the ground. "_They're all terrible and vicious._"

"But White is nothing like them," N responded reassuringly as White picked herself off the ground. "She's just like you; she never lies."

"_You don't know that,_" Zorua replied, green eyes flashing with anger as he looked at her from behind N. "_She's human after all…could easily turn around and stab you in the back._"

o

She wasn't entirely surprised when Zorua decided to join them—though he ardently insisted that he was only travelling with N, and that White could very well go die in a hole for all he cared, _thankyouverymuch_—on their journey across Unova. And the fact that Zorua clearly had an intense dislike for her didn't bother White either; from what N had told her, Zorua had the right to hate her kind. She sort of understood where Zorua was coming from, considering her own experiences from her childhood, so it was easy to comprehend as to how two-faced and cruel humans could be. Not that she would ever tell the fox-faced Pokémon that—she still had some dignity left in her after all. There was no need to be groveling at the feet of someone who hated her guts.

o

It didn't take them long to reach Hodomoe City after they left Raimon late in the afternoon. The trek through the woods and across the bridge had only taken them a few hours, the only stall in time being when Zorua had decided to cause a ruckus on Raimon's side of the bridge and nearly wrecked the console that controlled Hodomoe Drawbridge's motion. And by the time N had secured a room for them in the Pokémon Center, the sun had already sunken down behind the high tree lines, leaving the slim, silvery form of the moon in its wake.

White settled her back against the wooden head frame of the bed and positioned her pen against the blank white sheet of her journal, all the while listening to the faint movements of N and Zorua as they settled into the bunk bed below hers.

Scribbling down a short message, she proceeded to rip the paper out of its bindings and then leaned over the edge of the bed and waved the sheet to where she assumed N's head was. A moment later, she felt N's hand brush against hers as he reached up to take the message.

_Are you going to challenge Hodomoe's gym tomorrow?_

"No, not yet at least. I'll need to go Route 6 and find Pokémon who would be willing to fight on my side, so I probably won't have time to challenge the gym leader."

_Can I come with you tomorrow?_

She felt N shift in his bunk beneath her as he read her question, and she couldn't help but wonder why he was hesitating.

"Um," began N, "well I don't really need you to come with me, White. Wouldn't it be nicer to go out and explore Hodomoe tomorrow? I'm sure it would be better than trekking around in the rain and mud with me for hours on end."

_But I don't care about the mud or rain_, she wanted to say to him but didn't, _as long as I'm with you, I don't care where I am._

When she wrote down her next message, she didn't mean to press the pen down harder against the paper. She didn't mean to angrily tear out the page in her journal. She didn't mean to crumple the paper and throw it at N's face either. But the slight yelp seemed to slightly pacify White to some extent—not that she was proud of it.

_Is Zorua going to battle with you?_

"Only if Zorua's willing to," came his immediate reply. "I don't want to force him into battling the gym if he doesn't want to—

"_Of course I'm going to battle,_" interrupted Zorua as if it wasn't a matter to be debated over. "_Remember what I promised you years ago? Together till the end._"

Distantly, White could hear N mumble a fond-filled "thank-you" to Zorua, but she sat still for many moments after that with knees bent and pressed up against her chest with her notebook crushed between them. It took her awhile move again, and when she leaned over the bed's edge with a ripped out paper in hand, White found that N had already fallen asleep. So she resigned herself to settle back into her pillow and burrowed deeper into her blanket, crumpled paper in hand but left forgotten.

Her sigh filled the room like empty hopes and lingering dread as she closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep just as the timer on the light clicked and sent the room into a numbing darkness.

oo

She dreamed about war. She dreamed about how civil war ripped across Unova, Pokémon and humans turning on each other, fear and anger emanating from both sides as they tore and ripped at each other, fighting for survival, for revenge, and for bloodlust. The images were horrible and nauseating, and _Arceus_, it was too much to bear because at the center of it all…

…was _her_.

She didn't know how, didn't know why, but somehow she was to blame for the internal war that was splitting apart Unova and its former peace. It was all her fault, but the worst part was that she could do nothing to stop it.

_Stop fighting_, she wanted to cry out to the ravaged field filled with nothing but blood and acerbic dreams. Her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out and so she was left shuddering, hands clutched at her throat as she tried desperately to say something—_anything_.

The sky above her was stained a delirious blood red, lightning flashing across the sky like an ominous premonition of something much, much worse than what was happening before her very eyes. And she coverd her eyes with her hands as she crouched down low, wishing that all the screams and destruction would just _stop_, because she couldn't take it anymore, she couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't—

And in the dark and chained corner of her mind, a small voice mockingly whispered to her a truth that she refused to believe.

No, she _thoughtshoutedcried_, that's not true. It's not, it's not, it's not—

She opened her mouth to scream—

oo

She felt herself jerk upwards with her mouth open in a wordless scream of terror before she was even fully conscious of the fact that it was all just a _nightmare_.

White grasped at her face in a frenzied terror because it hurt terribly and Arceus, oh Arceus, she could feel the blood on her cheeks. And when she looked down at her hands, the sight of her bloodied fingernails was what caused her to completely shut down.

She didn't know how she managed to climb down the stairs of the bunk bed without falling, but somehow, within her hazy mind, she managed to make it down in one piece. Subconsciously she was aware of reaching for her shoes and then stumbling towards the door in a frenzied act of desperation to just get the hell _out_. She wasn't thinking, not really, and it's a wonder that she hasn't managed to wake either N or Zorua in the entire ruckus that she had caused during her hasty escape.

It was raining outside in Hodomoe, but she couldn't bring herself to care as her bare feet raced across the wet, slick pavement with no destination in mind. She should probably have put on her shoes, but she didn't for some crazily stupid and unknown reason—she would probably regret it later on though.

The sky was a pitch black backdrop, a far cry from the bloody atmosphere that she had seen within her nightmare—this eased her thrumming heartbeat for a moment and brought a slight perception of clarity to her as she finally slowed to a stop.

Around her were large, gray storage buildings, towering over her shivering and rain-soaked figure. To her right was a gray, iron door slightly ajar, and in her delirious state, she didn't hesitate to push the door open and step inside. Her shivering increased tenfold when the frigid air of the Cold Storage hit her, the icy feel of the floor sending shocks up her bare feet.

With shaky legs and bleary eyes, she started to make her way across the storage space, her feet thoughtlessly dragging across the floor without a care. And when she is about to reach the other side of the room, she suddenly found herself tripping over a bright, red object and crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

It didn't hurt, not really, so she didn't bother to check herself for any scrapes when she pulled herself up into a sitting position. And there, an inch or two away from her feet, lying innocently on the ground, was a Poké Ball, and she slowly inched her hand out toward the capsule and pulled it into her grasp.

The Poké Ball felt heavy in the grasp of her frozen hands and she could feel a slight warmth emanating from it. _A Pokémon_, White realized within her state of delirium, _there's a Pokémon in here_. It didn't cross her mind to release the Pokémon from its Poké Ball, like N would have done in her place. Instead, she hugged the object to her chest in a frivolous attempt in trying to warm it.

She didn't know how long she stayed in that position, collapsed against the pile of stacked steel crates as she shivered from the frigid and numbing temperature. But honestly, she couldn't have cared less; the pain, the skin-prickling cold, the hollow emptiness of the Cold Storage—none of it mattered to her. At least the cold would keep the nightmares at bay; at least she wouldn't have to dream about Unova's destruction.

But then the dreadful silence in the storage ended when the iron door creaked open and a figure stepped through the threshold. From what she could see from where she was, the boy was tall and lanky, all sharp angles and long limbs with narrow and calculating eyes hidden behind wiry frames. Suddenly afraid that the person would spot her, White pressed her back closer to the crates and attempted to curl in on herself to seem smaller. It didn't work.

As the boy began to walk across the room, her shivering figure caught his eyes; she saw his black eyes widen in shock, and before White can even blink or let out a shuddering breath, he was crouched down in front of her, slipping his jacket around her shoulders. "Hey, are you crazy? What kind of idiot would be willing to freeze their ass off in a place like this? Obviously you," he said to her in a sarcastic tone as he took her tightly clasped hands in his and rubbed at her icy skin in an attempt to bring back some warmth. "You're clearly not okay—what's your name? You know what? That doesn't really matter right now. I need to get you to someplace warm."


	4. Unanswered Questions

A/N: Hey! Thanks for being so patient for this chapter guys! The chapter is pretty lengthy (probably about 10k-ish I think). And hopefully things will pick up around the Chargestone Cave event and things will be more exciting (so sorry if it's kind of boring right now guys!).

So, I'm using the Japanese names for the Pokémon in this story (since I'm already using the Japanese names of the characters); but I'm not using the Japanese names for the moves—because that's way too much work for me.

Here are the name translations for the Pokémon I used in this chapter:

Chaoboo = Pignite

Janovy = Servine

Miruhog = Watchog

Meguroco = Sandile

This chapter is entirely in Touya's perspective, so it sort of backtracks in the beginning.

Enjoy the story!

* * *

><p><em>I am the queen of Team Plasma.<em>

No way, Touya couldn't help but think. White…she was—

"You're the one behind all the cases of Pokémon thievery?" he demanded angrily, the accusation spilling from his mouth before he could even grasp the idea properly in his head. "Your _henchmen_ have been running around all over the place and forcibly taking people's Pokémon from them! Haven't you ever heard that stealing is a crime?"

_Thievery?_ White scoffed at the term. _Don't go around accusing people with false assumptions. Team Plasma doesn't steal Pokémon; they only convince Trainers to release Pokémon from their imprisonment._

"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain the fact that my friend's Munna was stolen by your subordinates? Or even how they abuse the wild Pokémon that they're claiming they want to protect?" A flare of anger engulfed his mind as he said this, because he just couldn't comprehend as to how _anyone_ could stand to defend Team Plasma. But here White was, righteous and proud, standing with the posture of someone who clearly believed that she was in the right.

It just didn't make _sense_.

_Haven't you ever been told that it's not nice to lie to others? _And even though her words were only written on paper, Touya could practically hear the disdain and mocking tenor of her non-existent voice bringing the message to life. _You may not agree with what Team Plasma believes in, but that doesn't give you the right to just make up stories to fit your case. _

From the corner of his eye, he could see the Ferris wheel cart slowly descend back down to the ground, and for some strange, unexplainable reason, he feels himself begin to panic.

He was finally face to face with the person behind all this craziness and madness, both of them stuck within the confines of the enclosed space with nowhere else to escape to—at least for only a minute or two more. He desperately wanted answers to questions that had cropped up ever since he had encountered Team Plasma at the start of his journey in Karakusa Town. This might as well be the first and last time he'll ever have the chance to ask.

"What's Team Plasma trying to accomplish by trying to force people into releasing their Pokémon? I highly doubt that they actually want to create a more ideal place for Pokémon to live in. There has to be more to than that—

_Team Plasma was made to create the world that the king has envisioned; his right is just and his motivation is good and pure. There is no other goal than what Team Plasma is claiming they want to accomplish._

A king? Touya's eyes furrowed at the statement. "Oh, so there's a king? So is he sitting at home on his throne while you're out here doing the dirty work? I wouldn't have pegged you to be the lap dog of some delusional freak—

He felt her fist grapple at the front of his jacket before he even saw it coming his way; and even though he couldn't see her fist, he could feel it trembling at the base of his throat. She dragged him down harshly until he was at eyelevel with her and gave him a fierce glare that nearly caused his heart to jump up into his throat.

And when she spoke—for the first time since he had met her—it was with a voice so halting and hoarse that it seemed as though she hadn't spoken for years. "Don't you dare," she snarls at him with a soft, menacing voice, "_ever_ insult him that way. He is a good person that only cares for the safety of his friends. And unlike people like _you_, he actually has _morals_."

Distantly, he could hear the ride coming to a stop and the automatic doors sliding open; but none of that really mattered when the person in front of him looked about ready gouge his eyes out. He wanted to tell her to let go, but he didn't have the nerve or the courage—he'd never been good with girls, after all.

"Stay away from N," she said furiously, cheeks flushed and blue eyes narrowed at him, before giving him one last shake and shoving him back into his seat with a look of disgust.

This was when all the little pieces of information clicked into his brain, and sent him reeling back into the captivity of shock and dread. And by the time that Touya was able to regain his senses and drag himself out of the ride with what was left of his sanity, White had already disappeared into the crowds of Raimon City, not a single trace left behind to prove to him that she was ever there. It all seemed like a terrible dream, but he knew deep within his heart that this was all very much real.

Because N… N was the king of Team Plasma.

o

It all made sense. The talk of Pokémon confinement, saving his "friends" with the perfect equation, power to change the world…it had all been so _obvious_ even then, but he had been too dense and oblivious to see what was right in front of him. And yet…why was it so hard for him to believe that someone as good as N could be a part of something so _terrible_? N may have been a little strange, but he wasn't the kind of person who would find a twisted satisfaction in hurting others; it was all too obvious to Touya that N sincerely cared for Pokémon.

So why…?

"Argh!" exclaimed Touya as he angrily pulled at his hair in frustration, knocking his hat off in the process. He ignored the strange looks that passersby tossed him; instead, he simply buried him head into his hands, rocking to and fro on the balls of his feet while still managing to not fall over the edge of the park bench.

"Touya?"

Surprised, Touya jerked his head up to the sound of his name and immediately found the same exact person that was currently circling his thoughts standing directly in front of him.

"N!" he exclaimed, forcing a false smile into place as he greeted him. "I didn't see you there!"

"Well I wouldn't have thought so, considering the fact that your face was practically glued to the palms of your hands," N replied dryly, but nonetheless grinned back at Touya.

"Ah, well I have a lot of things on my mind," came his sheepish response. He rubbed the back his head mindlessly and glanced away from N, silently hoping that the teen wasn't able to read thoughts in addition to being able to speak to Pokémon.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he heard N offer. "I mean, I'm not trying to be nosy or anything, but White's always telling me that it helps to have someone listen to your problems."

Touya couldn't help but freeze at the mention of White's name, but then forced himself to relax. "Eh, nah it's okay. It's not that big of a deal anyway. What are you doing here anyway, N?"

"Well, actually, I was looking for White," responded N with a worried frown. "I haven't seen her all afternoon and she won't pick up her Xtransceiver either."

_That's because she was too busy insulting and threatening me all afternoon in the Ferris wheel_, came Black's sarcastic thought. He was very tempted to say exactly this, but then it would only lead to a darker and less desirable topic in conversation; and he wasn't exactly ready to confront N about that particular aspect of his friend's life. Not yet at least.

Instead he chose to wear a mask of surprise as if to say, 'well what are the chances?', and helpfully said to N, "Oh, White? I just saw her pass here a while ago." He then pointed down the street that would lead back to the Pokémon Center. "I think she went down that way."

N immediately brightened at this, and Touya couldn't help but wonder—for the umpteenth time—why someone like _N_ was cohorts with Team Plasma of all things. Just thinking about it was giving him all sorts of headaches.

"She did?" N asked hopefully and Touya nodded in response, too worn out to answer. "Well I'll be going then…I'll see you around?"

"Not unless you're going to be in Hodomoe City. I'm leaving for it today; I've already beaten Kamitsure, so I'm going to go on to challenge Yacon for a Gym Badge."

At that, N's expression seemed to twist into something unreadable and dark. It had only been for the briefest of moments, but it was there, and no matter how strange and surreal that expression had seemed on N's face, it didn't change the fact that Touya knew that it had been there. But as quickly as it had come, it disappeared into nothingness, and in its place was a benevolent facade.

"Really?" he asked nonchalantly. "Congratulations on your Bolt Badge, then."

"Thanks," Touya replied, albeit somewhat uneasily. "Have you challenged Kamitsure yet?"

"No not yet. White and I will probably be staying here for a few more days until I challenge the Gym." N paused for a moment when the sound of his Xtransceiver pierced through the air. "Sorry, hold on," he told said to Touya as he fumbled through his pockets for the device before managing to pull it out and answering it. "White? Where are you?"

There was silence on the other end, but Touya knew that N must have been reading White's message on the screen because a look of comprehension dawned on his face. "The Pokémon Center?"

A pause.

"Well, I was just wondering that's all; I was looking for you all morning you know," replied N in a slightly petulant tone. "I mean, I wasn't trying to be nosy or anything. I just wanted to take you out to ride the Ferris wheel—I heard that the view is really nice at night…huh? Dinner? Well if you want to, I'm fine with that. Yeah, okay. I'll meet you outside then. Bye."

Shutting the Xtransceiver off, N turned back to Touya and gave him a sheepish smile. "I have to go meet White at the Pokémon Center now. Good luck in Hodomoe." With that said, N turned around and began to head in the direction of amusement park's exit. But then the teen paused and spun back around to face Touya with an earnest and sincere look on his face. "Unless you want to come and eat dinner with us?" he asked with a hopeful look in his eye.

The thought of eating a meal across from White only brought a chill to spill down Touya's spine, shaking him to the bones. Dinner with White? Not in a million years, Touya thought to himself. And he was pretty confident that White shared the same feelings as him.

Which was about the only thing that they shared in common.

"Nah, I'm fine," he said to N. "I'm not really hungry; besides, I have to start packing and leave for Hodomoe soon if I want to get there before the Pokémon Center closes for the night." He couldn't help but feel the guilt creeping into him when N's face fell slightly in disappointment. "But maybe next time?"

"Alright," N relented. "Next time then."

N gave him one last grin and a small wave before heading back the way he came, his retreating figure slowly drifting away.

But before N was entirely out of earshot, something bubbled up within Touya's throat—a strange feeling of urgency and desperation mixed into one—and forced the words out of his mouth before he could even stop himself. "N, wait!"

He could see N stop in his tracks and then twist around slightly around to him, with his head tilted curiously to the side. "Yeah?"

_Are you…are really a part of Team Plasma? Are you really their _king_?_

He desperately wanted to ask those exact same words, to at least know on which side they stood, to be able to know just what was going on—he was never quite fond of being left in the dark after all.

Touya felt his mouth work in a wordless sentence, the muscles in his jaws clenching and contorting with a strange sensation, before he promptly gave up.

He couldn't ask N. He just _couldn't_. He was too much of a dirty coward to muster up his courage to ask one simple question.

But the fact was, was that it wasn't a simple question. Nothing was ever that easy in real life.

So instead, he plastered on another smile and said, "Ah nothing really. Just…good luck battling Kamitsure."

o

The moment that Touya stepped off of Hodomoe Drawbridge, he found himself face first on the ground with a squealing and energetic Chaoboo sitting on top of him. He groaned slightly from the pain and squirmed around on the wet grass in a weak attempt to throw the Pokémon off. From above him, he could feel the fire-type sniff at his head before deeming it satisfactory and sticking its snout into his ear. Touya proceeded to shriek into the ground, his shout being slightly muffled in the process.

A little ways off, he heard an exasperated voice call out, "Chaoboo! No! You can't just go around jumping on people! How many times do I have to tell you that?"

The Chaoboo snorted slightly into Touya's ear in response to this reprimand. He grimaced.

He then heard the tell-tale noise of the Pokémon being returned into its Poké Ball, the heavy weight suddenly lifting from his back, and inwardly sighed in relief. Footsteps slowed to a stop behind his sprawled figure and he heard the voice speak again, only this time it was directed at him.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry about that; are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm all right. No big deal," he replied as he got off from the ground and dusted himself off before turning around to face the person. "I'm pretty used to being tackled to the ground actually. I have a friend who constantly does that whenever—

"Touya!" Bel cheered gleefully upon seeing his face and proceeded to tackle him to the ground.

"—she sees me," he finished with a pained grunt, this time with his back on the ground. Well, at least it wasn't his face. "Hey Bel."

"Oops!" She pulled herself back slightly and gave him a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that."

"S'okay," he let out breathlessly. "Can…can you get off me?"

"Sorry!" she repeated with an embarrassed smile and scrambled off of his torso. "I just got really excited for a second. I kinda did the same thing to Cheren before when I saw him in Raimon City—I nearly broke his glasses though."

"Did he get mad?" he asked as he took her outstretched hand and pulled himself up.

"A little," she admitted guiltily. "But it was kind of weird; he didn't give me the cold stare that he usually gives me. He just got really red in the face and started spouting out elemental types and their weaknesses. It was really weird."

Touya merely shrugged at her. "He's probably just going through another phase again."

Bel seemed to accept this as a true statement. It wasn't much of a far stretch really—the two had seen their studious childhood friend pass through much stranger phases and habits. Like the time he proceeded to cram himself into the oddest crooks and crannies to sleep in. Or the time he had an obsession with writing notes all over his arm, only to forget what they meant hours later.

"Probably," she agreed. "But anyways, what are you doing here, Touya?"

He grinned at her and said, "I just won my Bolt Badge from Kamitsure, so I'm here to challenge Yacon."

"Oh!" she said excitedly and clapped her hands together. "That's amazing, Touya! Congrats—

"That's all well and good, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until those Plasma freaks are arrested in order to battle the Gym," a voice cut in sharply to their conversation.

"Cheren!" he and Bel chorused upon seeing their friend standing a little ways behind them with a slightly disgruntled look set upon his face.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Touya demanded just as Bel left his side to greet Cheren with an overly enthusiastic hug. "What does Team Plasma have anything to do with battling Yacon?"

"Well apparently when the drawbridge was being lowered for me to cross, a couple of Plasma grunts causing trouble were able to get away in the confusion and crossed over the bride into Hodomoe. Yacon is blaming me for the slip up, so now I have to help him in finding the criminals before I can actually challenge him." Cheren paused abruptly when Bel pulled him into a bone-crushing hug; it was clear that he was uncomfortable at their close proximity, as indicated when he tried to dislodge her arms from his torso and attempted to squirm away from Bel. When no amount of subtle hand gestures would cause her to let go before she deemed it a proper embrace, Cheren resigned himself to the hug and continued. "So basically, no one can challenge Yacon until the Plasma grunts are caught. And unfortunately, none of us has gotten a lead as to where they might possibly be."

"But why does Yacon want to catch them so badly? What did Team Plasma do this time?"

"Apparently Team Plasma grunts were caught smuggling crates of stolen Pokémon outside Raimon City; but they were able to get away when the drawbridge lowered and escaped into Hodomoe. Though I don't think they could have gotten very far out of the city even if they tried to carry the crates by hands and feet."

"They're still stealing more Pokémon from their trainers?" Bel asked fearfully, finally letting go of Cheren and subconsciously hugged her bag close to her chest as if to protect her Pokémon. "But…but that's terrible! They're stealing our friends away from us as though they have a right to, claiming that it'll make a perfect world…but it's only hurting everyone in the long run!"

"Well it's not like Team Plasma is going to comprehend that fact anytime soon; they're much too wrapped up in their delusional fantasies to even realize anything that's remotely rational," Cheren replied, pushing his crooked frames upright onto the bridge of his nose. "The best that anyone can do is to arrest them before anymore harm can be done."

"I'll help you then," offered Touya, a sense of duty overwhelming him. "You'll need all the help you can get right?"

"I'll help, too!" Bel added determinedly. "I don't want others to have to go through what I went through when they took Munna away from me."

"Even if you two _do_ help, it won't change the fact that none of us have any idea as to how and where to find the Plasma grunts and the stolen Pokémon," grumbled Cheren, his matter-of-fact tone still present despite his frustration.

"Well you never know until you try!" Bel shot back at him. "You shouldn't be so negative about things, Cheren."

"Bel is right," agreed Touya. "And besides, the more people in on this, the better the chances are for finding the Pokémon."

o

It took them days to find a lead—and even then, the hint was so ludicrous and small that even Bel had a difficult time trying to think that it was even possible.

"I _cannot_ believe that we're doing this."

The three of them stood huddled in a circle underneath the dull, yellow flickering light of the single light bulb strung up by a wire above the chipped and scratched wooden door. The foul smells of sewer water, rotting food, and wet mildew combined into a terrible odor that overwhelmed the trio and left them clutching at their noses like their lives depended on it. Touya, with one hand still pinching his nose, gave Cheren a sullen look and replied waspishly, "Well it's not like we have anything else to go on, Cheren."

"You got that information from a _drunkard_—

"Hey! He was a very nice drunkard, mind you—

"He was completely wasted when he claimed to have seen a bunch of people cosplaying as knights carry a load of cargos through the back entrance of the bar!"

"Well it doesn't mean that he's completely wrong about what he saw!"

In the midst of their heated argument, neither of them noticed Bel slipping around them and walking up to the back door, promptly rapping at the wood with a sense of purpose. The two arguing teens immediately stopped their bickering and watched on with looks of apprehension and wide eyes as the door swung open seconds later. Standing in the middle of the doorway was a man dressed in jeans and a plain shirt with a white apron covering most of his ragged attire; a lit cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth, and the towering man loomed over the trio with an unamused stare plastered onto his face.

They all stood in silence for a moment before the employee (or at least Touya _assumed_ that he was one), barked out roughly, "Well are ya just going to stand there, or are you all just gonna keep wasting my time?"

Bel jumped slightly at the man's sudden outburst but then immediately gathered up her wits and burst out, "U-um! We were just, uh, wondering if we could have some…some," here she fumbled slightly as she racked her brain for the right words, "…er, soda pop?"

Silence reigned over them once more as the Bel's words sunk in. From where he was standing, Touya could see some strange look pass through the employee's eyes as he mulled over Bel's seemingly out of place request. It's not going to work, Touya thought with a groan. Maybe Cheren was right after all; maybe the drunkard had heard the secret password wrong—or worse, maybe he had never even seen Team Plasma, and instead it had all just been some ridiculous dream.

The thought of it nearly gave Touya a migraine—Cheren would definitely never let him hear the end of this.

And when the silence nearly became too much to bear for him, the employee stepped away from the door's threshold to allow for some room before gesturing with his thumb to the winding hall behind him that lead to Arceus-knows-where. The man nodded his head at them in slight approval and added shiftily, "Women's bathroom, second stall."

Touya nearly choked on his spit at this unprecedented response, and he fervently hoped that the man could not see his incredulous expression.

Cheren, however, could not hold in his disbelief; Touya could faintly hear the sound of his friend choking on air from somewhere behind him.

And that was all the employee had to say on the matter it seemed, because in the next moment the he had strode away from them and disappeared through one of the doors on the right.

"Well," Bel began unsurely, fiddling with the hem of her orange vest, and turned her head around slightly to peer at him and Cheren. "I guess the drunkard wasn't so drunk after all?"

The telltale sound of a hand slapping against someone's forehead reverberated through the air.

"I _cannot_ believe that we're doing this," Cheren repeated with an exasperated sigh for the umpteenth time that night before resigning himself to his fate and trailing after Touya and Bel as they headed through the back entrance of the bar.

o

"No."

"Aww come on Cheren!" Bel implored as she tugged at his sleeve. "It's just the ladies' bathroom! It's no big deal."

"One: it's a lavatory, not a bathroom. And two: I refuse to go into the woman's lavatory—because if you two haven't noticed already, I'm a guy, and guys aren't allowed to be in the lavatory specifically designed for _women_."

Touya rolled his eyes at this and leaned against the bathroom door to hold it open. "Just leave him, Bel. You'll never change his mind that way; besides, the reason that he doesn't want to go in is probably because he's still afraid of cooties."

Cheren bristled at this comment and nearly shouted out," I am _not_."

"Uh-huh." He smirked at his best friend and tilted his head toward Cheren with one eyebrow raised impishly. "Prove it."

He nearly chortled with laughter as he watched Cheren march past him with an imperious glare into the girl's bathroom, as if he had all the right in the world to be there. "See?" said Cheren with a waspish look at Touya. "I am _not_ afraid of cooties."

Touya in turn, threw him a smug grin. "Of course you're not, Cheren. How could I have ever have doubted you?"

Bel clapped her hands in amusement and said, "Touya you're a genius!"

"Wha—?" At this comment, Cheren's brain seemed to register the fact that he was standing in the middle of the girl's lavatory. His face fell at this realization and proceeded to scowl in Touya's direction. "I hate you."

"I'm wounded," he responded dramatically with his hands splayed out across his heart. Stepping away from the door, he let it swing shut and came over to Cheren, swinging his arm around the boy's bony shoulders. "Come! Let us explore the inner jungle of the ladies' bathroom!"

"—it's called a _lavatory_—"

"Let's see," interrupted Bel as she pushed open the second stall door with her hand and peered into the cubicle with wide eyes. "Well...I don't see anything here, guys. What do you think that employee meant when he told us to go here?"

"You don't see anything?" demanded Cheren, roughly shrugging off Touya's arm, and stepping closer to Bel to get a better look. "Well then it's probably hidden somewhere most people wouldn't look—this is a public lavatory after all."

"That makes sense," agreed Bel with a nod.

"So…who wants to try first?" he pondered aloud, sticking his head between Bel's and Cheren's so as to get a look into the surprisingly clean stall.

They all looked at each other simultaneously, looks of reluctance on each of their faces.

"Ugh, I'm not doing it—Arceus knows how much bacteria and germs are on that thing," Cheren said primly as he wrinkled his nose.

"Um…I just washed my hands!" Bel blurted out frantically, the blatant lie spurting from her mouth before she could even consider the unsoundness of it.

He merely sighed and shook his head at his two childhood friends' responses. Of course now he was stuck with doing the dirty work. Brilliant.

What did he do to deserve to have such…_wonderful_ friends like these two?

"Fine, I guess I'll do it," he said a tad bit too sulkily and pushed past them to enter the tiny stall.

Well…what exactly was he supposed to look for?

As if reading his thoughts, Cheren added helpfully, "Maybe there's a message or something around there."

"Around _where_?" Touya threw back at him, eying the toilet with something akin to wariness and disgust. It might have looked clean, but that didn't necessarily mean that it _was_. And now he had to go and feel the thing up, looking for something that might not even be there—this kind of thing wasn't exactly _top priority_ on his to-do list.

But…, he swallowed down his disgust and revulsion, if it meant saving the stolen Pokémon from Team Plasma…

He could hear Bel squeak in disgust the moment his hand felt along the bottom back corner of the toilet. Touya promptly ignored this.

Well…he didn't _feel_ anything suspicious. Grimacing, Touya inched closer to the toilet and lowered his face till it was eyelevel with the base; he peered at the back of it only to find nothing for his efforts.

From above him, a voice suggested, "Try lifting the toilet lid?"

Touya scrambled up from his position on the ground and threw an incredulous look at Bel. "Seriously? You think there might be something under there?"

Bel shrugged and gave him a defensive look. "Well, you never know till you try."

Defeated, he turned back to the task at hand and slowly inched his hand out towards the offending object—he couldn't help but shudder outwardly when his hand touched the cold surface of the lid—and lifted it upwards till it was resting on the wall behind it.

Surprised, his hand fell back to his side as he openly stared at the toilet.

"Huh," Cheren said aloud, unwittingly voicing Touya's own thoughts, "well, what do you know. You were right after all, Bel."

Bel merely smiled in response to this.

Because there, on the bottom of the toilet lid—a place that no one in the woman's bathroom would have thought to look at—were two words written in bold, black strokes across the surface.

_Cold Storage_.

o

The Gym of Hodomoe City was a grand building with wide glass panes laid across its surface and crisscrossing golden lattices on both sides of the red entrance. Darkness shadowed its corners and struck across its front in straight, sharp-edged lines—_like claws_, Touya couldn't help but think, _of the fairytale creature Zoroark_. He, Bel, and Cheren all stood at the darkened Gym entrance, the only light source being two lampposts on the street corners behind them, and peered through the glass panes and into the Gym.

"I don't see anybody," Touya grumbled and then leaned away from the building with crossed arms.

"Well it's nearly midnight," huffed Cheren, pushing his frames up onto the bridge of his nose. "I should think that any sane person would be in bed by now."

"Maybe we should come back tomorrow and tell Yacon about what we found?" said Bel.

"Well that's the only option that we have left," Cheren replied. "So we might as well just head back to the Pokémon Center and get some rest."

Touya could only frown but nevertheless kept quiet and trailed after Bel and Cheren when they started back towards the Pokémon Center. Cheren seemed to notice his change in demeanor, throwing him a suspicious look over his shoulder, but Touya paid him no attention, too lost in his own thoughts to notice anything else around him.

He couldn't wait until tomorrow, he just _couldn't_—especially not when he was so damned close to stopping those Team Plasma freaks from doing any more harm or damage to these around them. However, impatient as he was, he managed to control his reflexive instincts to run and bolt towards the Cold Storage. Instead, he peaceably followed Bel and Cheren into their shared room, flopping onto his own bed, not bothering to take off his shoes or tuck himself under the covers.

The lights were soon flicked off, plunging the room into a never ending darkness.

But for him, sleep never came.

o

It was quiet; too quiet.

"Oi."

Something knocked at the back of his head, causing Touya to nearly shriek girlishly in surprise before falling over on his butt as he tried to turn around in his shock.

"Arceus!" he yelped out, pointing an accusing figure at Cheren, who in turn gave him a reproachful scowl. "You nearly scared the crap out of me, Cheren!"

Cheren merely raised an eyebrow in response to this.

Touya sputtered a considerable amount. "Wha—hey don't give me that look! It's not like I'm doing anything bad or anything—

A blank stare.

"—and, and if you really think about it, I'm actually doing everyone a huge favor by beating down those Plasma freaks."

Silence. And then:

"So you should really be thanking me. Because I'm a total hero and—

A loud shout sounded out, stopping Touya mid-rant; he jerked with a start, promptly told Cheren to _shut up already, do you want your loud voice to let know that we're hiding in the middle of some decrepit alley?_, and creeped closer to the edge of his hiding spot so as to be able to hear the conversation better, but didn't dare poke his head out lest he get caught..

"Careful! Or do you want to tip the crate over and spill out all those Poké Balls?" a voice was heard saying.

"Alright already! Jeez you don't need to scream for the whole city to hear," came the response.

"Well I wouldn't have to scream if you would just do your job properly—

"And I _would_ be doing my job properly if you would just stop nagging at me—

"Do you hear that, Cheren?" Touya excitedly whispered to the teen behind him. "That's what the message meant when it said 'Cold Storage'! This is the place where they're keeping all the stolen Pokémon!"

"—would you two quit fighting already and get the damned crate into the storage area already? It's already starting to rain and I don't want to end up looking like a sopping wet mess in front of Sage Vio," an irritated voice cut into the argument.

There was a mutter of assent between the two grunts before they both settled back into a grudging silence and all that could be heard was the sound of multiple crates being lifted and the sound of footsteps stomping off into the far off distance.

It was when complete and utter silence reigned that Cheren decided to finally speak—if only to reprimand Touya for his rashness.

"You just couldn't wait till tomorrow could you, Touya—

Annoyed, Touya slapped his free hand over Cheren's mouth, received a reproachful frown in turn, and peered around the corner.

The coast was clear.

"Oi, Touya!" came Cheren's hissed whisper as he withdrew his hand and jogged out of their hiding spot. He dashed across the empty streets, his sneakers slapping noisily against the asphalt, and then ducked his head and torso down to get under the bar that blocked the entrance to the Cold Storage. And just as he was about to sprint off again, Cheren's fingers grappled at the back of his sweatshirt and forcibly pulled him back, causing Touya to yelp in surprise.

"Hey! Let go of me—

"Not until you tell me what kind of reckless danger that you're planning to jump into," Cheren replied sternly, ever the voice of reason. Touya scowled back at his friend as he tried to wriggle his way out of Cheren's vice grip—because dammit, since when did Cheren get so _strong_? Last time Touya remembered, Cheren could barely lift a stack of textbooks without stumbling. "Because I know you," Cheren continued, "And I know how you think—or lack thereof. You're the kind of person that would just run head-first at any sign of danger just because you have this ridiculously huge hero complex. But you know what? It never works out for you, because your lack of reason and logic always gets you hurt in the end. And I'm not letting you get killed because you were too stupid to think up a logical plan."

"Well alright then your highness," retorted Touya, finally jerking himself out of Cheren's grasp and spun around to face him. "Tell me _your_ ingenious plan."

Cheren threw him a haughty look before twisting around his backpack and stuck his hand into its depths as though searching for something valuable. Touya rolled his eyes and added, "Don't tell me you wrote up a plan—

"No, I didn't," Cheren interrupted, pulling out a handful of Poké Balls and shoved them into Touya's hands, "But at least I had the mind to bring _your _Pokémon with me when I saw you trying to sneak out of our room at the Pokémon Center."

"What are you talking about? I did take my Pokémon," he protested and jammed his hand into his pocket to pull out three Poké Balls. Small and spherical, the red and white polished colors gleamed brightly under the lamplight, and Touya could have sworn that they look exactly like his own…except for the pink, ornate flower stickers stuck onto their surface, right above the release buttons. "Oh."

"You took Bel's Pokémon instead of yours," stated Cheren, a smug look plastering itself onto his face before twisting into something decidedly serious. "You're lucky you didn't wake Bel up though, otherwise you would have dragged her into this dangerous mess."

"You act like Bel can't fend for herself."

Cheren flushed for some strange reason—although Touya felt that it just wasn't worth his life to ask _why_—and retorted, "I'm not saying that she's weak or anything; she's strong and selfless and she can be ridiculously stubborn. But she's never been a fighter, Touya. So I'm trying to keep our promise to her dad by keeping her out of this."

And although he had always been called dense, Touya knew—almost immediately, as though it were some kind of sixth sense (because this was Cheren he was dealing with, and he's had more than enough years of friendship with him to know that _this_, this was serious)—that Cheren actually liked someone (well, someone other than Pokémon battles and books and studying).

"Well, it's about time," Touya muttered under his breath.

Cheren started with wide-eyes and demanded, "About time for what?"

Touya rolled his eyes. And people called _him_ dense. "Time for us to start looking for the stolen Poké Balls, obviously." Well, he wasn't going to spell it out for him if Cheren wasn't even aware of it himself.

He stood up from his squat on the ground and nonchalantly dusted of the invisible dirt on the front of his pants and said to Cheren, "I think it'll be easier to find the Poké Balls if we split up, so I'm going on ahead okay?"

"I really don't think that that's such a good idea, Touya—

Touya began to step out of the shadows of the alley before remembering something especially important and turned back to Cheren with a cheerful expression on his face. "Oh, and here," he nearly crowed gleefully as he grabbed Cheren's hand and pressed Bel's Poké Balls into his open palm. "Take good care of them for Bel 'kay?" He winked at Cheren as though he was sharing some inside joke—even though he knew that Cheren wouldn't understand (but still, it was the thought that counted).

He couldn't help but get a sense of satisfaction from leaving a completely befuddled Cheren in his wake as he jogged off in search of stolen Pokémon.

But despite his cheerful mood, hours later, he found himself in a rather miserable state, deeply regretting the fact that he hadn't brought a thicker jacket with him when he had been sneaking out of the room. The frigid temperature of the all the low, grey-stone buildings was devastating enough to send any sane person running away in search of warmth. Not that the ice-cold rain pounding relentlessly outside helped his situation. How many buildings had he searched already? Five? Ten? Did it really matter though? He still hadn't found where they were hiding the stolen Pokémon.

Slamming the iron wrought door behind him shut, Touya heaved out a heavy sigh and glared out at the pouring rain from his spot under the metal awning above him. Damn his stupid hero-complex. But it was too late to change his mind and turn back now; he still had a job to finish.

Touya pushed himself off of his resting spot against the door and began to jog further down into the inner area of the Cold Storage. Most of the doors that he had checked were locked shut and nearly impossible to open—but out of the few that were open, he had failed to notice anything out of the ordinary within the storages' interior. The narrow road was slick and shiny from the rain, so he tried his best not to lose his balance and fall face first; above and around him, the storm continued to twist and churn like a tempest at sea. The street was empty and desolate save for the nearly identical buildings that lined its sides, and as he ran against the storm and its winds, it almost seemed as though the scenery continued to repeat itself, or rather refuse to change at all—_I'm moving towards nowhere_, he couldn't help but think deliriously.

But like all things, the never-changing scenery and road ended. And as Touya slowed to a stop, eyes squinting against the relentless downpour, he could barely make out the faintest outline of a large, stout, and hulking figure, walking towards him—_or rather_, he decided almost imperceptibly, _limping_. But soon the outline of the figure became clearer and more distinct, and that was when Touya realized with a start, that there was, not one, but rather _two_ figures—one of them leaning heavily on the other for support. From what he could tell at the moment, the one leaning on the other for support was a girl—judging from the long, brown hair that trailed all the way down her back—and the other was a boy, with jet black hair, long, sharp limbs, wiry frames, and an ever-present scowl plastered onto his face—

"Cheren!" he shouted out in shock, his feet moving towards them before he could even register the fact that Cheren was in front of him, and he was willingly touching a _girl_, and dear Arceus, was the girl hurt or something? Because if she was, he would practically be useless since he didn't know the first thing about first-aid and—his thought suddenly derailed when he finally caught sight of her face. And despite the empty, hollow look in her eyes, the lips tinged with blue, and locks of brown hair plastered against her forehead in disarray, he immediately knew that this was _White_ standing in front of him.

White seemed to recognize him, her eyes focusing slightly in shock, but didn't express any other emotion besides that and instead turned her head away and stared off at the side. Touya kept a peaceful silence at this reaction, taking no offense, at her blatant disregard of his presence. Their last altercation was all but a distant memory that he had long ago deemed as something that wasn't worth to hold anger against—he just wasn't the kind of person to hold a grudge. Instead, Touya turned his attention back to Cheren, just in time to catch the last few words of his sentence:

"—found her in that last storage back there," here, Cheren gestured his head towards a storage at the furthest end of the road behind him, "She was nearly freezing herself to death by the time I found her so I'm taking her to the Pokémon Center so that Nurse Joy can give her some medical attention." Cheren paused for a moment, glanced discreetly in White's direction and continued haltingly, "I tried asking her what her name was and if she lived around here, but she wouldn't answer me. But—

"Her name is White," Touya supplied. "She's traveling with a trainer named N. I would know because we, uh, we're friends—N and I." And he couldn't help but notice the way White's eyes seemed to widen and the almost indiscernible turn of her head at his last few words—and he briefly wondered why she looked so shocked and maybe…a little bit fearful.

"So your name's White?" Cheren said to the girl but did not receive any form of acknowledgement; he frowned slightly at this but held his tongue, instead turning back to Touya. "I'm going back to the Pokémon Center now, but…," he lowered his voice and leaned in closer to Touya, "I think I saw someone sneaking around the back of the storage—I'm not exactly positive but, I think he or she might have been one of Team Plasma's grunts."

Touya gave him a reassuring grin, placing his hand on Cheren's shoulder, and pointed to himself with his other hand, saying, "Don't worry, I'll handle things from here."

He could see doubt cloud Cheren's eyes. "Are you sure? It's dangerous—

"I've always known that it would be—but that didn't stop me from coming here, right?" he hurriedly added. "I'll be fine, Cheren. I won't do anything reckless, I swear."

"Fine," Cheren muttered, although it was all too obvious that he was _not_ fine with the idea. "But I'm going to get a hold of Yacon as soon as I can so he'll send some reinforcement over here."

"I'll be _fine_," he repeated one last time to him before Cheren started walking away with White in tow towards the Cold Storage exit. "Jeez," he muttered aloud to no one in particular, "You'd think I was walking towards my own death with the way Cheren was talking."

With one last shrug and a glance back in Cheren's general direction, Touya started towards the final storage at the end of the street.

As the building grew in size as he drew closer, a stray thought struck him as odd and he couldn't help but mull over it with intent.

What in Arceus's name was _White_ of all people doing here?

_Well_, he thought to himself,_ it sort of made sense that she would be here since Plasma grunts were here. But…_, his mind flashed back to their heated argument on the Ferris wheel, she _really seemed to think that Team Plasma wouldn't stoop so low as to forcibly steal Pokémon from other Trainers_. And no matter how nasty White could be, he felt that she wasn't the type of person to lie. But then why was she freezing herself to death in the Cold Storage then?

As he reached this particular thought, he suddenly found himself facing the entrance to the storage; his train of thought seemed to end at that particular moment as Touya swung open the door that was already slightly ajar and peered into the building. The fluorescent lights were lit and shined down onto the ground, causing a shimmery gleam to skate across the icy surface of the floor.

He quietly closed the door behind him and slowly made his way across the large open space with a tense hand around Janovy's Poké Ball. The frigid air was still and stagnant, and with every breath he let out, a white puff of mist formed before his eyes before dispersing and dissolving into the air as though it had never appeared in the first place.

Multiple times Touya had fallen and slid across the frozen floor in a tangle of limbs, crashing into the pile of steel crates; thankfully, he didn't make so much noise as to cause anyone to rush towards the noise. A half hour had already passed by the time that he had climbed down the last and final ladder and discovered a large square, metal alcove nestled between columns of boxes and crates.

And when he finally stopped to listen, he could hear all too clearly a stuttering, petulant voice penetrating throughout the air of the storage building. "—c-can't believe they chose _m-me_ of all people to regulate the op-operations h-h-here in Hodomoe! A-and they just _h-had_ to designate the Cold Storage as the temporary b-base! It's s-s-s-o _cold_!"

"S-sage Vio!" a voice trembled, his teeth clattering from the cold temperature, "the crates have all b-been taken and hidden until transportation is available, as per request!"

"Arceus only knows how long that will take," he heard Sage Vio mutter. "Now! All of you—huddle around me! I can't take this cold…"

Touya gathered his wits and courage and took a deep breath to calm his hammering heart. His feet moved forward and then suddenly he was standing in the small alcove, with one Poké Ball in hand, and spoke out loud to the huddled group's back.

"Well how about a Pokémon battle to warm you up?" He outwardly grinned when they all jumped at the sound of his voice and swiveled around to face him with fearful wide eyes.

An old, decrepit man stood in the middle of the small group—_three Plasma grunts_, he noted to himself—swathed in garments of deep, rich colors; the man's expression of fear immediately turned into one of distaste and disdain once the shock of his arrival waned. "W-who are you?" Sage Vio demanded from behind the grunts' protection. "And why in the world are you in _here_ of all places?"

"I think I should be the one asking _you_ that question," replied Touya, "But I won't have to bother, because I already know why you all are here: to hide the crates of stolen Poké Balls—

"As if you could do anything about it," the Sage interrupted haughtily, chest nearly puffing out from sheer arrogance, and gave Touya a nasty sneer. "You're just one person—do you really think that you could actually defeat us and take back the Pokémon?"

"Well I've managed to put a stop to your petty schemes plenty of times before; I don't see why I can't do that now," he replied, the smile finally slipping from his face. "But I'm giving you all one chance to give back what you've stolen and turn yourself into the authorities—

A bark of hysterical laughter erupted from Vio's lips before Touya could even finish his sentence. "Do you actually think," he managed through his peals of laughter, "that you hold an ounce of fear against us? You're just a _boy_! And even if you were strong enough, we would never allow anyone to put a stop to our future king's plans."

These people are crazy, Touya thought to himself. It just didn't make any sense to him as to how dedicated and delusional a person could be as to cling to another man's ideal as though it were a life line or a safety net. And yet that was what Team Plasma did—whether it was all a farce or a twisted truth, he could never tell. But one thing that he knew for sure, one thing he was absolutely positive of was that they needed to be stopped; Team Plasma needed to be brought down from their pedestal of treachery and cruelty—because what they were doing…it just wasn't helping anyone, not even the Pokémon.

There was only one choice left.

Touya licked his lips in an act of nervousness and anticipation, pressed the circular seal of the Poké Ball in his hand, allowing it to enlarge itself before speaking again to Sage Vio and the group of grunts. "Just because I'm only one person doesn't mean that I can't do anything—that I'm useless against people like you. I'll take all of you down," he said heatedly, his voice rising with his cacophony of emotions—and before he could think of what he was saying, he added, "I'll stop Team Plasma—and I'll defeat your future king to do that."

Touya caught himself at the last word, but it was far too late to take any of it back. He had never actually thought about it that way before—that he had to defeat their future king (or rather _N_, he realized with a start) because now that he had actually said it out loud, the words chimed to a terrible truth that he had never grasped until now.

He and N…they would have to fight—on opposite sides…as enemies. But friends didn't do that.

But were they really friends?

Before he could delve any deeper, Vio's voice cut through his train of thought: "I'd like to see try to stop us! Everyone, drive that intruder away!" All at once, like mechanized machines, and in perfect synchronization, the three Plasma grunts threw out their Poké Balls, releasing the Pokémon inside.

With brief flashes of light, a Miruhog and two Meguroco appeared in front of the grunts, snarling and baring their sharp teeth at Touya with glints of viciousness in each pair of eyes.

Touya nearly gaped with an indignant look on his face. One of grunts caught his flabbergasted expression, gave a callous smirk, and added, "Who said we were going to play fair?"

Now that was just plain cheating.

And just as he was thinking this, each of the grunts called out attacks for their Pokémon and carry out; the Pokémon responded almost immediately. The Miruhog, being the fastest of the three, raced towards Touya, intending to close the distance between them in order to attack.

Touya started in surprise (because he honestly wasn't expecting for them to order their Pokémon to attack _him_) and released his Janovy from her Poké Ball, frantically calling out a counterattack to block the oncoming Miruhog's tackle.

Janovy, released from her capsule, immediately swung a vine whip out at the Miruhog from above, batting it easily to the side; she then took advantage of the momentum of being in mid-air and slammed down onto the fallen Pokémon with a loud crash.

It had all just happened in a few short seconds, but before Touya knew it, his Janovy had already caused the Miruhog to lie on the ground, defeated, in a pile of limp limbs.

Proudly, Janovy turned her head back to look at Touya with a smirk playing at her lips all the while. Touya managed to give her a relieved grin before shouting out another order.

"Janovy, swing up onto the crates with vine whip!"

Dark green vines shot out from Janovy and grabbed hold of the tallest column of crates; with a sharp jerk, the vine extensions quickly retracted the snake-like Pokémon from the ground and swung her up onto the metal box with ease.

Below her, the two Meguroco stopped in their tracks, growling in frustration at Janovy above them.

"Meguroco—both of you, use confuse ray on that Janovy!" one of the grunts called out angrily.

In response to this, Touya hurriedly called out, "Janovy, use leaf tornado!"

Just as the Meguroco were preparing to open their mouths to screech a piercing and nearly deafening sound, Janovy swiftly brought out her hands, her eyes glowing red, and brought forth a violent gale that trapped the two Pokémon below. The powerful tornado swept and raged fiercely around the two dark types, bright green and silver colors flashing brilliantly from within the spinning winds; and if he listened hard enough, Touya could hear the howls and cries of the Meguroco trapped within Janovy's attack. But as quickly as the attack had begun, it promptly ended with the winds suddenly dying out into nothing, leaving the prone bodies of the fainted Pokémon at the Plasma grunts' feet.

There was a moment of silence in which the grunts could only stare in shock and astonishment, their gazes constantly shifting from their fainted Pokémon to Janovy, sitting smugly atop the metal crate, to Touya himself.

The adrenaline was rushing through his blood, making his heartbeat rise to a crescendo in his ears, and Touya nearly felt invincible.

And then—

"You're going to pay for that _brat_," snarled the female Plasma grunt, already reaching for her Poké Ball on her belt.

He watched as the feral look on her face slipped away almost immediately after she said this, and saw something akin to fear reflect in the grunt's—and even Sage Vio's eyes.

"Not unless I get a say in this," a gruff voice interrupted behind Touya. Shocked, Touya spun around and found himself face to face with Yacon and a group of police officers behind him. "Yacon!" he nearly shouted out in surprise.

"Touya!" he heard his name being called out before someone ran out from behind the group of officers and crashed into him with a fierce hug. "Oh my gosh, Touya, are you okay?" Bel exclaimed worriedly as she pulled herself away slightly, but still not letting go of him completely. "Cheren told me everything, so I called Yacon and told him to come to the Cold Storage as quickly as possible. I can't believe you would just go and run off like that! You could have been seriously hurt, Touya!"

"Bel…"

"Men, arrest those Pokémon crooks," Touya distantly heard Yacon order the officers.

The adrenaline slowly began to drain away, and in its place was a hollow emptiness and shaking hands; Touya desperately fought to keep his legs from collapsing beneath him. There was a flurry of movement around him as Touya tried to slowly breathe in and out and try to reassure Bel that _yes, I'm fine; I'm alright, so can you let go of my arms already? I think I'm starting to lose feeling there_.

A strange shudder ran down his neck, almost as though someone's eyes were on him; he glanced around to find the source of his strange discomfort and suddenly found Vio staring openly at him as the Sage was lead away in cuffs. It was nearly frightening the way he look at Touya—there was an eerie gleam in the old man's eye, like a dangerous thought or a secret that could only end terribly in the long run.

Touya fought back the shivers, and quietly turned back to Bel with a comforting smile.

But he just couldn't help but feel a dark and twisted premonition of things to come.


	5. Growing Doubts

I guess this is somewhat of a filler chapter which basically fills in as to what happens on White and Cheren's side during Touya's adventure in the Cold Storage. Originally it was supposed to be much longer because the chapter was supposed to continue into the day after the Cold Storage events, but after reading it over, I felt that it wouldn't flow as well if I stuck everything into just one chapter. So I basically cut a little more than half of the original out and put it into the next chapter. The next chapter should be out by next Friday *crosses fingers*.

Munna = Munna

Arceus = Arceus

Lillipup = Yorterrie

Illumise = Illumise

Volbeat = Barubeat

Enjoy the chapter!

o

She felt as though she was going to be sick—not like a cold or fever (though she was sure that that was bound to happen sooner or later), no it was more like the feelings of acidic and violent churning in her stomach as the bile worked its way up her throat.

She couldn't feel the pain that accompanied it though, so she wasn't exactly sure as to whether not her mind was playing with her.

Either way, it didn't stop her nausea from sapping at what was left of her energy.

She realized now that it had been entirely reckless of her to have gone running off like a delusional idiot—all because of a nightmare (a _nightmare_, she couldn't help but scoff inwardly). It had been a nightmare that had scared her out of her wits; but it had merely been a figment of her imagination—it wasn't as though it were some predetermined destiny or future. But she still couldn't comprehend as to why she had been so terrified because of it.

Nightmares couldn't predict the future—the idea was completely ludicrous.

But why had she been so damn _scared_?

It wasn't as if she had never had these nightmares before—the truth, in fact, was the opposite of this. The screams, the violence, the fighting—she had seen all of this before in her reoccurring nightmares. But they had never been this terrifying or mind numbing; and the dreams had never become this frequent until recently—when she and N began their journey. It felt like a terrible omen to think of it—but it was as though something or someone was trying to warn her against doing something that she would inevitably regret.

But regret what exactly? Trying to help N achieve his goal? To find the truth within society's cruelties?

_No_, she decided, _none of that made any sense. You're being paranoid, White—nightmares, they're all just candy-coated lies, and nothing good will ever come from fretting over something that's not true. _

These thoughts were enough to pull White out of her sluggish stupor, and now she felt as though she was sobering up from her poison induced nightmare. She could now feel the biting winds rushing past her, traveling to some unknown paradise, to a safe haven hidden from all of reality, and she couldn't help but wish, for the briefest of moments, that she was as free as the winds.

And now that she fully awake, conscious of right and wrong—or rather the difference between reason and stupidity—the full brunt of her actions and all that had transpired hit her like a ton of bricks. And a burning question, bright against all others, flared against her mind and bringing itself to the forefront of it all.

Cheren had mentioned to Touya that he had seen members of Team Plasma gallivanting around the Cold Storage; the words had passed between them for the quickest of moments, but she had managed to catch vital snippets of their conversation—despite their intentions of keeping this secret from her—and now that she realized and understood the implications behind their words, she couldn't help but wonder…

What were the grunts of Team Plasma doing in a place like the Cold Storage in the middle of the night?

She had seen the itinerary for all of Plasma's future events and actions ranging from Geechisu's propaganda speeches to the planned meetings between her, N, and the Dark Trinity—but she had never seen anything related to Hodomoe City and the Cold Storage.

Maybe Geechisu had decided to prearrange an event last minute? But then why did he choose to do it in the middle of the night? Doing something like that didn't seem like something that Geechisu would do; White knew him well enough to know for sure that Geechisu was the kind of person who would meticulously plan each and every move of Team Plasma till his dying breath.

White was distantly aware of the Pokémon Center doors sliding open, a warm gust of air bursting forth from the open doors and spreading out into the chill weather outside. Cheren gently guided her to one of the red and white couches in the waiting area, pressed down firmly on both her shoulders, and forced her to sit down and wait for him as he went towards the front desk of the center.

When she saw that his back was fully turned towards her, she hesitantly pulled out the small spherical object that she had hastily stuffed into her pocket the moment Cheren saw her. Despite a few faint scratches on its surface, the Poké Ball still seemed to be in good condition; from a closer inspection, White could see that the white paint on the release capsule was partially faded—which could only mean that this Poké Ball, and whatever Pokémon was inside it, had belonged to a trainer.

But why was the Poké Ball left lying on the floor of the Cold Storage? And what had happened to the previous trainer? Did any of this have to do with the Plasma grunts spotted by Cheren? And if it did, then why?

Touya's words emerged from the murky depths of her mind, angry and unbidden.

"_Oh yeah? Then how do you explain the fact that my friend's Munna was stolen by your subordinates?"_

He had been so angry. And she had been dubious and furious at the accusation—she had thought that what he had said to her had been a lie. But now…now White couldn't help but wonder if the boy had been right all along.

"_Or even how they abuse the wild Pokémon that they're claiming they want to protect?"_

White bit her bottom lip and gazed at the Poké Ball in her hands, as though the seemingly innocuous object had the answers to everything. Was there something more to Geechisu's plans that she and N had never been informed of? Was there something more to the very organization that she had thoughtlessly assumed to have known every nook and cranny of?

The Poké Ball burned under her touch as if to give clarification to her thoughts.

She needed to go back to the Cold Storage. She needed to find Touya. She needed answers.

_I don't have time to be sitting around and doing nothing_, she angrily thought to herself as she sprang up from the couch and turned to the entrance of the Pokémon Center. But the moment she stood up, the world began to spin; White bit back a groan and pressed the heel of her hand against her right temple as her other hand grappled at the back of the sofa for balance. Her eyes struggled to focus and bring her surroundings back into focus, but to no avail. Despite all this, White forced her feet to move again, determined to find answers to her questions.

"Where are you going?"

White froze in her tracks.

Cheren appeared in her line of vision, his mouth contorted into a worried frown. "You're not trying to go back the Cold Storage are you?"

He didn't seem to be inclined into letting her go any time soon. The thought of making a run for it briefly crossed her mind before White dismissed the ludicrous idea entirely. She could hardly walk straight for Arceus's sake; she doubted that she would be able to outrun Cheren in her weakened state. White sighed and glanced down at her feet, bare and wet from the rain, as she wiggled them absentmindedly. Maybe it would be better to just go back to bed.

She could feel his heavy gaze on her, and she squirmed uncomfortably at the prospect of it.

"It's dangerous at the Cold Storage right now," warned Cheren. "I shouldn't be saying this because I don't have any solid proof, but I'm positive that there are terrible criminals hiding in the warehouses. Yacon and his police force have been searching for Team Plasma for days on end because they've stolen cargos of Pokémon from trainers. And from what I've heard, those Plasma thieves may even be abusing those Pokémon. You don't want to get mixed up with those criminals."

White couldn't help but give a bitter smile at the irony of it all—though she was glad that she was still staring at the ground so that Cheren wasn't able to see her face. Here he was, lecturing her about the cruelties of Team Plasma, while unbeknownst to him, she was the queen of the organization that he seemed to despise so much. White couldn't help but wonder how Cheren would react if he found out about her true identity.

White lifted her head slightly and peered through her bangs to steal a glance at the boy's expression. She expected anger. She expected fury. What she didn't anticipate was…exasperation? White blinked owlishly and brought her head up to face Cheren properly.

Yes, there was definitely exasperation on his face—but it wasn't the bad kind, the kind that caused frustration and violence. But rather, his exasperation seemed to be something akin to fondness and amusement; though she instinctively knew that it wasn't directed towards the members of Team Plasma. But then...why—

"You're a lot like Touya, you know?" The corners of Cheren's mouth lifted slightly as he said this.

Perplexed, White could only tilt her head at this strange and unexpected observation. It was hard to believe that she was anything like the boy she had labeled as a nuisance and a danger to her and N. Though she inwardly cringed at the thought of sharing anything in common with Touya, White couldn't stop from wondering what had caused the teen in front of her to come to that conclusion.

Cheren shrugged and glanced away from her. He continued: "I mean, I've known Touya for nearly all of my life; he has this ridiculously huge hero complex that makes him think that he's nearly invincible. Which of course gets him into all sorts of trouble—not that he minds the dangers or repercussions, though. I guess most people would call it being stupid or thickheaded. Sometimes I think that, too—and other times, I can't help but think that Touya's just nonsensically brave to a fault. It's a little weird to say this but, I can sort of see some of that in you."

She saw his cheeks flush slightly at this admission and she couldn't help but smile slightly. Even she wasn't exactly fond of Touya, it was oddly pleasant to hear that she and he had admirable attributes in common.

Reaching out, White grasped at Cheren's hand and pulled it out, palm facing upwards, towards her. She heard him sputter indignantly—_wait, w-what are you doing?_—and felt him try to pull back his hand impulsively; White ignored his surprise and steadfastly held onto his hand as she began tracing out words onto his palm.

_Thank you. _

Pausing in his attempt in retracting his hand, Cheren furrowed his brows and tried to form the letters in his head. "Wait, could do—could you retrace that? I didn't understand that."

_Thank you_, she wrote again.

Still puzzled, Cheren asked, "What for?"

_I'm not exactly a huge fan of Touya. But it's good to know that even _he_ has some redeeming qualities—and that he has a good friend like you to care about him._

"Did he do something to make you mad?" asked Cheren. "Because I'm sorry if he did something stupid—he can't help it though, it's just ingrained into his personality. He's not bad person, but honestly, he does come off as rude at times even if he doesn't mean to be."

_No I mean, I…_, her hand paused when she tried to piece the right words together, _it's mostly my fault. I was just jealous, I suppose. Jealous of him. He had every right to say the things he said. I wasn't exactly the nicest person to him either._ Shrugging, she brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes. _But I'm too selfish and stubborn to apologize._

He tilted his head to the side and gave her a small reassuring smile; he shook his head as if to brush away her guilt. "I don't think you should worry too much over something like that—especially when it concerns someone like Touya," he explained patiently to her. "He's not the kind of person to hold a grudge—in fact, I would bet that he's already forgiven you for whatever you said to him."

_Really?_ White could help but inwardly grimace at the hope that bubbled up at his reassurance. It wasn't as though she were looking for Touya's forgiveness. Definitely not. It was just…it just felt _wrong_ to hate someone like Touya—he was too bright and cheery for people to despise him. And whenever she felt her mouth contorting into a distasteful frown at the thought of him, she always felt as though she were kicking a poor, defenseless Yorterrie.

She saw him nod slightly. "Yeah."

As she was about to trace another message into Cheren's palm, a fatigued voice called out across the waiting area of the Pokémon Center, causing White to jump in surprise, her head wheeling towards the noise.

"Cheren?"

In response to this, the teen swiveled his body towards the stairway that led up to the bedrooms for visitors. A sleepy-eyed girl stood at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the threshold of the doorway as she tiredly rubbed her eye and let out a huge yawn; her blonde hair stood up all directions as if each and every single lock of hair had a mind of its own, though the girl didn't seem to pay very much attention to her current disheveled appearance.

"Bel?" questioned Cheren. "What are you doing up?"

Padding towards him in her pink slippers, Bel gave another sluggish yawn before replying, "I couldn't' sleep." Then she abruptly stopped in her tracks and glanced down towards Cheren's hand. "Oh, um, was I interrupting something?"

Cheren's skin burned against hers at the sudden attention. A bright red flush crept across White's face as she jerked her hands back to her chest with a discomfited expression.

Well this was awkward.

Beside her, the teen stammered out an unintelligible response before managing to scramble together one lucid answer: "NO."

A mangled silence reigned over them. Bel was now unabashedly staring at her, most likely wondering about her relationship with Cheren. Cheren seemed be in the throes of wanting to break the silence and not wanting to make the situation even more uncomfortable.

At that very moment, the prospect of sleep seemed very tantalizing to White.

Deciding to finally listen to her brain for the first time that night, White sighed and brushed past Cheren and Bel with her sights on the staircase to salvation—or rather her bed. This sudden movement seemed to force Cheren out his stupor. "White? Where are you going?"

Not wanting to bother with a better response, she jerked her hand to point towards the stairs that led up to the rooms for overnight guests hoping that he was smart enough to understand her silent message; though she didn't bother to check to see if her hand gesture was clear enough for him to understand as she began to ascend the staircase.

All she could think was how glad she was to leave all the strange tension, the residues of her nightmare, and the lingering questions of Plasma's intentions in the lobby behind her. Troubles would be saved for another day—what _she_ needed right now was sleep. Empty, dreamless sleep.

o

When Bel woke up in the darkened room that she, Touya, and Cheren shared, she hadn't expected to find herself all alone. And when she climbed out of her warm bed in search of her friends, she hadn't expected to find one of them in the lobby of the Pokémon Center. And when she found Cheren, she hadn't expected to see him holding hands with a pretty-eyed girl soaked to the bone from the rain.

No, she hadn't thought that she would find any of those things; but it wasn't as though she had any reason to think about any of those possibilities. Normal people wouldn't randomly wake up in the middle of the night for a midnight stroll. Though in Cheren's and Touya's defense, neither of them were the epitome of _normal_.

But as she stared at the two in front of her, Bel somehow knew that she wasn't normal either. Because normal people didn't usually feel sick to the stomach when they saw that their friend was holding hands with some stranger. Definitely _not_ normal.

All signs of sleep had departed the moment her brain had finally registered that Cheren—_Cheren_ of all people—was willingly holding hands with a girl. Well, it wasn't as though he had never done something like that before; Cheren used to hold her hand whenever she felt lonely or scared—but that was when they were little, and even then those moments of compassion were very sparse.

"Who was she?" she asked curiously the moment the blue-eyed girl was out of earshot, successfully keeping an accusatory tone out of her question. Not that it was any of her business who Cheren canoodled with in the middle of the night. But still, she was dying to know. "The Illumise to your Barubeat? Your secret lover?"

"Don't be ridiculous," sniffed Cheren with a mortified expression. "She's just a friend of Touya's. Sort of. But that's beside the point. Have you seen Nurse Joy around? She's not at the front desk."

"She should be in the back room with all the injured Pokémon. Why?"

"Well…," he paused as though he were debating as to whether or not he should tell her. "Touya and I…we sort of snuck out to the Cold Storage a few hours ago."

At first there was shock. Then disbelief. Then a flare of indignant anger. "What? You guys left with even bothering to see if I wanted to come? Cheren!"

He seemed to be feeling guilty enough as it was, taking into consideration his averted eyes and reddened ears. "Well we…I thought it would have been better to let you sleep—

Clearly upset, Bel huffed and placed her hands on her hips in immense disapproval. "Look, I know you think I'm weak and everything, but that's not true at all. You have to trust me on this; I can take care of myself."

"I know that," he replied, frustrated. "Touya was saying the exact same thing to me before. It's just that I—

A dreadful realization slammed into Bel as Cheren was talking, making her heart stop for one heartrending moment. The words coming from her friend's mouth swiftly became a consistently buzzing white noise in her ears because now, only one word had her mind's attention.

Touya.

"Where's Touya, Cheren?" asked Bel, her knuckles turning a ghastly shade of white. "What happened to him?"

"He's still at the Cold Storage."

Bel asked fretfully, "Is he alright?"

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously at what he was about to say next. "Well, I think so. Last time I saw him, he said that he was going to go after the Plasma grunts that were lurking around the warehouse at the end of the dock."

"Oh Arceus," she moaned aloud. This was terrible—absolutely, positively horrendous. "Cheren you shouldn't have left Touya like that. You of all people should know the kinds of trouble that Touya likes to get himself into when he's given the chance!"

"He's not that much of an idiot!" Cheren justly defended. There was a distressing bout of silence. "Usually," he then amended after a moment of consideration. "I mean, he couldn't have gotten into much trouble; it's only been fifteen minutes since I last saw him."

But his vapid argument fell on deaf ears because Bel had already abandoned him in search of Nurse Joy.

By the time she had found the nurse, gotten hold of Yacon's number, explained the situation, and returned to Cheren, who was still sitting on the couch of the lobby with a weary look on his face, five minutes had already passed.

"Cheren," she pressed her hand firmly against his shoulder in an attempt to awaken him from his sluggish stupor, "I'm going to meet Yacon at the Cold Storage and help him find Touya."

He started up suddenly, launching himself off the couch and narrowly missing the table placed in front of the couch before declaring that he would come with her. Bel shook her head impatiently. "Cheren, you look like you're going to drop dead any moment now; I mean look at you, you can hardly walk straight without falling over. No," she firmly said to him and pushed him back down onto the couch, "you need to stay here and rest. You've done enough; now it's my turn to help."

o

It seemed like an eternity flew by before she found herself at the door between her and her bed. Sleep was all that White could manage to think about—yes, peaceful and quiet sleep with no nightmares whatsoever. That was, until low voices drifted through the crack of the slightly ajar door. The low murmurings were lulling and entirely all too familiar for her comfort; White felt the blood in her body freeze over when she registered who exactly were behind the voices.

With great trepidation, she pressed herself closer to the door in hopes of hearing the conversation.

"…Something urgent has come up, Lord N. And though it is somewhat regrettable, Geechisu has told us to prolong tomorrow's meeting."

"For how long?" This was N's voice now. She could still hear the traces of sleep in his words, as though he had woken up not too long ago. "And what was so important about the Cold Storage that Geechisu wanted me to see it, anyway?"

The Cold Storage? White's eyes widened at the familiar words. Could this mean that the Dark Trinity and even Geechisu had a hand in strange proceedings Cheren had told her about? Curiosity at its brim, she leaned in closer to the door, not wanting to miss anything important or revealing.

Another voice, deeper than the first one, answered, "For an indeterminable amount of time, my lord. Geechisu has decided that it would be best to allow you to mature more on this journey before he shows you what he wants you to know."

"So you're saying that Geechisu told you _not_ to tell me?"

"You're very sharp my lord."

"What I don't understand," N began irately, "is why White wasn't allowed to come with us. What's with all the secrecy? It's not like she's our enemy or anything."

"Lady Touko is not our enemy," was their reply. "But she is dangerous. She is a double-edged sword that can very well kill you, Lord N."

If she was in that very room, White knew what she would see: N's face contorting into a delicate mask of anger, his fists at his sides clenching and unclenching, the sharp tug at the corners of his lips. Even from behind the door, she could very well feel the ire radiating from him. A strange, fearful tremor races across down her arms.

"She would never do that." Concealed fury. Controlled anger. Venom oozing from his words. "We're _friends_."

"Of course she is." It was a demure a reply in attempt to assuage N's threatening anger. "Our apologies, Lord N. We did not mean to imply anything less."

"I'm sure," replied N, sarcasm coating his words.

"We shall take out leave now." There was a pause; the sound of the window sliding open filled the room. "And Geechisu sends his regards."

So Geechisu still thought of her as a threat to N's goals, did he? He must have, or else Geechisu wouldn't have instructed the Dark Trinity to keep her in the dark about Team Plasma's dealings in the Cold Storage. But was that why N hadn't wanted her to come with him on his outing? Because he had a secretly planned rendezvous with the Dark Trinity?

It hurt her to actually think about it. That N had willingly hid something like that from her. Just a moment ago he had been calling her his friend—but friends didn't hide things from each other. Or did they? She didn't actually know for sure; the only friend she had ever had was N—and because it was N, she didn't have much to go on concerning the protocols of friendship. And it wasn't as though she was completely innocent either; she had been hiding things from N as well. Her feelings of jealousy, frustration, and fears—anything and everything concerning him. All these years she had been nothing but positive and supportive of his decisions, all of her words and actions stemming from a fear of Geechisu's wrath.

All of sudden she felt very tired.

"White?" was N's greeting when she pulled open the door and entered the room. "White, why are you all wet? What happened? I was about to go looking for you—

_I'm fine_, she replied curtly.

She saw him frown with doubt. "Then why are you wet?"

_I went out for some fresh air_, she told him—because it wasn't a lie.

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "In this weather? Really?"

_Yes. And I'm tired, N. I just want to sleep._

"Alright," he said as she let go of the hand that he always instinctively held out to her whenever they talked. He warily watched her as she climbed the ladder to her bed and crawled under the blankets, forming a cocoon of warmth and safety before saying in a soft tone, "Did you have another nightmare, White?"

Exhausted, White didn't bother with a proper response and instead twisted around in her sheets so that she was facing the wall and her back was all that N could see. She heard him sigh quietly and then after a pause, hit the lights and return to his own bed.

They didn't speak for the rest of the night.


	6. No Light, No Light

Hey guys! So I'm really excited because now I've gotten to the point where I want to be in the story and now I can get to the good stuff (in my opinion, I don't know about you guys though). And arghh, it's so hard to find ways to mention Zorua...!

Jalorda = Serperior

Sazandora = Hydreigon

Archeos = Archeops

Spear = Beedrill

But...but...yeah. Anyways, question time!

1. Should I give a nickname to the 'mystery' Pokémon that White has?

2. On a more serious note, do you guys like how I portrayed White's and N's relationship with each other? Do you think it seems real and tangible? I really want to make it seem bittersweet and touching; and what better way to improve than to ask for opinions! :D But yeah, no matter how strange this sounds, my goal is to make someone cry. Haha yes, mean, I know.

3. Also, do you guys like how I portrayed White and N in the story? More specifically N; I feel like its hard for me to show his more 'human' side.

You guys can answer any or none of these questions, whatever floats your boat. But it'd be awesome if you could tell me what you think of the story so far!

Anyways, enjoy the story!

* * *

><p>It was a strange sensation to be able to talk freely again. There was no fear that restricted her voice nor was there a grappling desire to remain silent. Because here, out in the grassy knolls far, far away from the castle, she and N were safe. The only things she could feel now were peace and tranquility. This was the way things should be; and she desperately wished that things could always be this way.<p>

Her hands and feet were smaller now, softer and more innocent. Her face was rounder and her eyes were kinder. N knelt in front of her, small fingers weaving grass strands and flowers together to create a crown of dreams and make-believe. White heard herself laugh—and oh, it was such a strange sound to hear, even in her own dreams—her hands reaching out towards N's own in an attempt to assuage his struggles with the braiding and knotting.

"Here, let me show you," she said, gently prying the unfinished crown from N's hands. "You need to be patient with these things." N curiously watched her fingers weave the slim strands of grass in a pattern and then intermittently knotting white daisies into the crown. "You shouldn't rush or else you'll make a sloppy job of it."

From the corner of her eye, she saw N give her a long look; it looked out of place on his childish face. It was the look of a man who has already run out of time. But time for what?

White continued, "Everything takes to time, of course. Life is a series of trial and error; you need make mistakes and learn from things. There's no need to get frustrated when you can't get the hang of things on the first try."

"But I don't have any more time."

Her hands stilled for a second before resuming its occupation. White looked at N, worry tugging at the corners of her mouth. "What do you mean?"

"I can't make any more mistakes, White," he said urgently to her, his deep voice eerily out of place with his young face. And somehow, she couldn't help but feel as though they weren't talking about making flower crowns any longer. "There's no more time for me."

White's heart beat a little faster at his words. She was scared. What did he mean? N was acting as though his life was running on its last leg of the race; but that was silly. He still had a full life ahead of him. She told him just that.

He shook his head at her as though she didn't understand—and she didn't, she honestly didn't.

"I'll be king soon, White. And kings don't have time for fun and games. They don't even have time for mistakes," he explained desperately, eyes fearful of something that White couldn't see, his hand gesturing to some unimaginable idea or explanation in the distance.

This time her hands completely stopped braiding and knotting. The unfinished crown fell to the grass, left alone and forgotten. "N..."

"I'm scared, White," he admitted to her, near tears. "I'm really scared."

She grabbed his hand, gripped it tightly to make sure he was real—but all she felt when her hand squeezed his was emptiness. "Me, too," her voice quivered as she said this. "I'm scared, too."

Her dream fades out into reality after this.

o

She woke up languorously, the light trickling into the room like liquefied gold, and glanced hopefully around the room.

No one.

Sighing, she swung her legs over the bed, feet banging against the metal rungs, and climbed down the ladder. She went through the motions of brushing her teeth and changing into a set of daytime clothes, all the while mulling over the events of the night before.

The nightmare was all but a faded memory. The chill of the Cold Storage was nothing a faint tingling on her skin. The white lights of the lobby downstairs were no longer sharp or bright.

All she could see was the light of a new day and her bedraggled reflection in the mirror.

The sunshine outside was bright and cheerful, and the calmness of the morning soothed the knots in her stomach and the ache in her heart.

She idly passed through the market in the southern part of the city, watched the customers haggle with the vendors, heard the small children and Pokémon chatter and laugh, smelled the bright flowers in full bloom. It felt nice to able to not think about anything. N's goals, her fears, this flawed, small world—these things did not matter.

She saw boys and girls her age, laughing, smiling, _living_. And just this once, White allowed herself to make-believe and pretend that she was just like them: _normal_.

oo

Touya found her sitting, knee-deep in an inland bay near the Pokémon Center.

For a moment, he contemplated the idea of simply leaving her to her own devices, but then changed his mind, gathering his courage to talk to White. Cautiously, he walked towards her with all the carefulness that he would have when trying to inch past a highly dangerous and irritable wild Pokémon.

But before he even reached her, she said aloud with her back still turned towards him, "What do you want?"

The words themselves were decidedly terse, but the tone in which they were said told another story.

She sounded tired. And sad. And just plain sick of the world.

Freezing in his steps, he said carefully, "I just wanted to see if you were all right."

Now White turned around, distant blue eyes focused on some point far past his shoulder and then finally focusing back on him. '_Did you get what you came here for?_' her eyes seemed to say.

"Are you?" he asked her, hands in his pockets and head tilted to the side.

Finally she replied, "Am I what?"

"I mean, are you okay?"

White turned away from him, facing the calm dark waters once more. "I think so," came her quiet voice.

He came to stand by her, and when she made no protests or complaints, Touya sat down beside White with his legs crossed one over the other. Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, Touya dutifully stared into the murky waters as if all of life's questions could be seen in the water's reflection.

"Can I ask why you were at the Cold Storage yesterday?" He tried to be respectful, honestly, he really tried. But his damned curiosity always got the best of him.

"I needed fresh air."

"In that weather?"

He saw a ghost of a smile cross her face before flitting away behind a mask of indifference.

"Yeah."

"Did you catch a cold?"

"No."

Silence. And then—

"Team Plasma was there; I fought them." He said this in a matter of fact tone, with no intention of starting a fight. "Did you—

She sighed resignedly. "I only found out last night. I had absolutely no idea that they were there."

Some queen you are, a sarcastic voice replied snidely inside his head. Desperately he squashed down the captious thoughts, and pulled a blank face. "They were trying to smuggle stolen Pokémon out of the city."

Here White buried her head into the palms of her hands. "I know," came her stifled voice. "I heard this morning. And…and I'm sorry. For all the terrible things I've said so far to you. And for calling you a liar."

Any doubt that White was the mastermind the Pokémon theft flew out the window the moment she apologized. She truly did seem sorry and truthful about all the things she admitted to. And even if she were lying through her teeth at that very moment, Touya knew that there was absolutely nothing to gain or benefit by being dishonest.

"It's not a big deal," said Touya—and it really wasn't.

"You haven't told N anything have you? About what I said to you in Raimon?"

"Well I haven't seen him since I left for Hodomoe. And even if I had the chance to, I wouldn't anyway," he admitted, though he had skipped over the reason why he didn't want to. It was slightly embarrassing, of course, to be afraid of words. He had always been the most confrontational person of all his friends, never caring as to whether his words would get him into trouble—he just couldn't stand not being able to say things that needed to be said despite the consequences that followed. But now here he was, too cowardly to even ask that one simple question to N; and if he couldn't even accomplish that, how could he expect himself to be able to confront N about the other important matters?

White let out a sigh, most likely out of relief, and replied, "Then can I take back what I said in the Ferris wheel? Could we just forget about it?"

"Forget about what?" was his jocular response.

White lifted her head a little so that now all he could was her eyes; the skin around her eyes crinkled slightly as bright blue orbs stared back at him. And even though he couldn't see the bottom half of her face, Touya could tell that she was smiling, if only a little bit.

"You're not so bad after all," said White.

"You're too bad yourself," was his reply. "Sort-of friends?"

"Sort-of friends," she agreed.

It wasn't the greatest of alliances, but for now, Touya was completely content with their ceasefire and peace treaty. And the idea that he was maybe sort-of friends with the queen of Team Plasma—the very same organization that he had sworn to bring down— was odd, and what was even stranger was the fact that he was sitting peaceably beside White, completely calm and most definitely not angry or afraid. Because, somehow deep in his heart, he knew that White wasn't evil—no, not everything was as black and white as the heroes and villains of a fable.

Real life wasn't a fairytale, that much he was sure of.

White and N…they weren't villains or even wickedly cruel. They were just White and N. Two normal (well, as normal as they _could_ be) teens who just happened to be on a different side—a side that had drastic views and some decidedly shady characters.

They sat in silence for a minute, letting the sea breeze brush over them like caressing fingers, and watched the darker shadows of water Pokémon flitting and gliding below the surface of the water.

And when there was nothing else to say, from the corner of his eye he saw White slowly get up, stretch her legs, and look back down at him.

"You're going?"

"Yeah."

Leaning back on his hands, he hunched his shoulder slightly and said to her, "Just one more question." White gave him a curious look, one eyebrow raised at his boldness. "If you can speak, then how come you never do that with N? I mean I've never actually heard you two _talk_—all you've ever done is trace words to him. You talk to me, though; but what's so special about me?"

There was a crooked grin on her face now, as if what he had said was extremely amusing to her. "You really think you're special?" White shook her head. "It's not that at all. It's because I couldn't care less about what you think of me. Or rather how my words affect you."

"But it's different with N."

"Isn't it always?" She glanced away from with a lugubrious look on her face. "He's my best friend," she said desperately, more to herself than to Touya. "My _only_ friend."

Unsure of what to say, he kept silent.

Abruptly, White spun around on her heels and said curtly, "Bye."

And by the time he stood up and turned around to say goodbye, White was already gone.

ooo

White didn't see Touya or any of his friends after that. The week crawled by slowly for her as she patiently waited for N to find the right companions to help him win his next badge. And when he did beat Yacon, there was nothing but smiles.

All the while, something inside her chest began to churn, to pound uncomfortably from the inside like an ugly monster of doubt straining to get out. She didn't understand what was with the sudden change—or perhaps her "new" set of feelings was not really new at all; perhaps those emotions had been there all along, buried in trench inside her heart.

She still cared about N; she still smiled and talked to him like she always had. There was nothing different about that.

But what _was_ different was the unsettling premonition that something big was coming; something that would change her life forever.

"White?"

A hand stretched out towards her, familiar and trustworthy.

White glanced up from her seat on the boulder near the river outside of Hodomoe, legs sore from the long trek to Electric Rock Cave. N grinned and waggled his fingers slightly. "Ready to go?"

His smile and enthusiasm was infectious; White couldn't help but return his grin as she gratefully took his hand in hers and pulled herself up. The three of them—she, N, and Zorua—moved on from their resting place, the rocky formation of their destination an isolated, bare monument among the evergreen of the woods.

It was nearing five o'clock by the time they set foot past the threshold of the cave entrance. The change in temperature was immediate; White rubbed her hands against her arms to bring back some warmth, her backpack jingling from the motion.

"Lord N. Lady Touko." Seemingly from out of nowhere, the three slim figures of the Dark Trinity separated from the darkness of Electric Stone Cave, and stepped forward to greet them. "We are glad that you both could make it."

White glanced around the area, taking in the sights of shimmering blue lights coming from the crystals jutting up from the ground, the walls, and the ceiling. It was eerily beautiful, the glow creating a stark contrast against the rest of the gray and dark cave. Distantly, all around her, White could hear the crackling of electricity, felt the static cause her hair to rise slightly.

"Have the grunts started mining for the ores to power the castle?" asked N.

They nodded in assent. "Yes, and we have also cleared the area of any trainers that can interfere with the excavation."

"Right then," N nodded and glanced back at the entrance. "Who's going to guard the entrance?"

"There's no need to worry, Lord N. We have assigned grunts to set up a barrier to keep away any unwanted persons," one of the trinity members replied.

"Come, we will guide you through Electric Stone Cave and show you Team Plasma's progress," another added.

They began to move again, the Dark Trinity at the front of the group. The footsteps clomped and plodded through the naturally illuminated area; like they had mentioned before, there was no sign of human life within the cave—but neither was there any hint of Pokémon activity. The realization struck a nerve in White—it seemed strange to her. The cave wasn't so isolated from society that the Pokémon would instinctively scuttle away at the sound of a trainer's footstep. Yet why did everything seem so _empty_?

Zorua seemed to share her thoughts. "_I don't like this…empty. Something strange is going on."_

Though there was doubt in N's voice and eyes, his words said something else. "I'm sure it's nothing."

White worriedly glanced at him before turning her gaze away. If even N was worried…

"Dark Trinity, where are all the Pokémon?" N asked aloud, his voice echoing loudly in White's ears.

"They must have been scared off by the noises from the mining of the ores," was their answer.

N didn't bother with a reply. None of them did. The explanation seemed reasonable enough, but for White, she somehow still felt a lingering doubt in her heart.

Their trek though the cavern seemed like an endless journey, each twist and turn around the bend lead to an identical, fantastical image of shining cerulean ores lining the walls and floor. Visible white electricity crackled when any of them came too close to a crystal jutting up from the ground.

Occasionally White could see the distant figure of a Plasma member striking at the wall with a mining pick to collect ores. And as they continued deeper into the cave, the temperature continued to drop, till any warmth was nonexistent.

N's shoulder bumped hers, their hands touching for a moment. And for some strange reason, White forgot to breathe.

"Sorry," he whispered softly. A pause. Then: "Your hands are cold. Do you want my jacket?"

Without even waiting for a response, N unzipped his jacket and held it out to her. "Here."

White shook her head, not wanting him to freeze to death because of her. As if reading her mind, N added, "It's okay, I'm wearing a turtleneck. I won't get cold. You don't need to worry about me; I can take care of myself."

Reluctantly, but not without a thankful nod, she accepted his offering and pulled the jacket on, slightly comforted by the warmth of N's lingering body heat.

They walked on for a little bit longer till White could see the traces of a lingering sun filter into the cavern from just around the corner. And as White was about to let out a sigh of relief at being able to finally see the exit, the Dark Trinity stopped abruptly in their tracks like puppets being jerked back on their strings.

"This is where we part with you, Lady Touko."

Jarred, she stopped in her tracks, mind pausing to properly comprehend the sudden statement. What did they mean? 'This is where we part'…what exactly was the Dark Trinity trying to accomplish by cutting her off here? And were they actually planning to just dump her here without a care in the world?

N stepped forward to speak in her place. "Wait, what you three talking about? This isn't a part of the agenda; White's supposed come with us to meet with Geechisu at the Tower of Heaven."

The triad faced them now, disinterested eyes all settling on White, the seemingly simple action making her shudder and shrink under their gaze.

"A week ago a mere boy singlehandedly brought down a group of Plasma grunts as they were trying to free the imprisoned and ill-used Pokémon from their cruel trainers. Not only that, but the boy also aided in the arrest of one of our sages. And when we freed Sage Vio from imprisonment, he insisted that there was something strange about the boy who had defeated him."

And although they spoke of the event in a roundabout manner, White knew exactly what they were referring to; however, one glance in N's direction showed that what the triad was mentioning was news to him.

"Geechisu is, of course, interested in this boy and desires that you, Lady Touko, gather information on him. More specifically, he wants you to battle him and asses his skills."

Battle? The concept was as confounding as it was nerve-racking to White. She couldn't battle. She _knew_ she couldn't, and she had no confidence that she would ever be good at something that N despised so intensely. And never once in her life had she ever given a command to any Pokémon—so how could Geechisu expect her to be okay with jumping headfirst into a game that she had no idea how to play? Even though she knew the general rules, it didn't mean that she was a natural battler.

Was this supposed to be some kind of joke?

"But White has never been in a battle before!" protested N.

"Well Geechisu believes that it is about time she has. As a future queen of Team Plasma, she will need to dirty her hands in order to help achieve your goals."

Gently, White placed her hand on his shoulder, gave it a light squeeze and then let go. _It's okay_, she meant to say through the silent gesture. _I'll be okay. I can take care of myself. _She could see that he wanted to say more on the matter, to protest as to how unfair Geechisu's order was. N glanced her way, a contentious frown stretching across his face. She shook her head at him to emphasize her point.

The trinity watched their soundless exchange and took their silence as a sign of acquiescence. White stepped forward, not once letting her gaze drift away from the Dark Trinity's stoic and piercing eyes. She knew that Geechisu was losing faith in her—though she didn't know the exact cause for his sudden distrust. But the one thing that she did know was that in order to protect N, she needed to stay by his side—and in order to do that, she had to keep ahold of Geechisu's trust and approval (which was a hard thing to do with such a fickle and selfish man).

Defiantly, she held their gazes, refusing to back down, not wanting to lose her place besides N. It couldn't have been more than five seconds that their silent standstill lasted before the three men in front of her shifted and broke eye contact. One of them reached into his pocket and pulled out a hidden object within his fisted hand. Cautiously, White lowered her gaze and watched as the hand turned over and unveiled the two small objects that were perched in the middle of his palm.

"These are Pokéballs," he began, stating the obvious. "Within them are the Pokémon Sazandora and Archeos; they will aid you in your battle. We have informed the guards at the entrance to only allow the boy into the cave so that you can battle him. From the information that we have gathered, he should be here soon enough. And…," here he lowered his voice so that only White could hear him, "If he proves to be a threat to Team Plasma, then Geechisu requests that you..._convince_ him to release his Pokémon." He leaned back from her and she blinked, stupefied. "Good luck, Lady Touko."

White took the two Pokéballs into her hand, making sure to treat the small spheres with the utmost care. She kept her eyes trained on them as if they were the most interesting things in the entire world—she couldn't bear to look at N. Even though it wasn't her choice, she felt that this was a betrayal to him and all the things that he believed in. And it wasn't as though she had personally asked the creatures within these capsules to help her in the crusade for their freedom; rather, the Pokémon had simply been placed into her unwitting hand with the expectation that she would use them in her battle.

It felt wrong.

But she nodded at them anyway.

"Come, Lord N," the left figure said, gesturing with a flick of his hand. "It is time for us to go and meet Geechisu."

She saw her friend hesitate for a moment. Zorua's growl broke through the silence. '_Oh for Arceus's sake—let's go already, N! She'll be __**fine**_.'

Reproached, N began to move past her but not before sending a hesitant smile her way. "I'll see you soon."

White nodded, pulling N's jacket closer around her.

And then she was finally left alone with only the faint tapping coming from the mining to be her sole companion for the entire wait.

For the first hour, she patiently waited, standing and staring into the darkness's immeasurable depths. The next hour after that White's feet started to ache from standing for so long, so she was forced to sit down on the cold ground with her knees pressed up against her chest. And so she waited, unwearyingly and long-sufferingly awake and alert for any sign of the trainer to come.

Of course she knew that the boy the Dark Trinity had spoken of was Touya. She had known from the very start. But it didn't make it any easier for her.

And just when she and Touya had finally come to a truce…

How exactly was she supposed to go about convincing him to release his Pokémon?

White sighed. Touya was going to feel deliriously angry at her betrayal.

And who had they been kidding? She and Touya would and could be friends, anyway—what with the fact that she was the queen of an organization that stood for everything he was against. If two people were constantly butting heads with each other, always at each other's throats, and always disagreeing with what one person believed in, then what was the point of being friends? That kind of relationship was deleterious and pointless—Arceus, it couldn't even be considered a form of friendship at all.

She sat facing away from the exit and the light from outside; but as the hours continued to tick past, she could see the sunlight beginning to dim into nonexistence. Absently, she toyed with the two capsules, wondering as to how the Dark Trinity had gotten ahold of them. Her hands stilled. These Pokéballs weren't stolen, were they?

Just as the thought occurred to her, the constant tapping coming from the grunts' mining stopped altogether and was replaced with deafening crashes and shouts.

What was going on? Fretfully, White stood up, shoved the capsules in her pocket, and peered past the glowing ores and into the darkness. And as quickly as the noises had started, they stopped; now there was only the sound of distant footsteps, coming closer and closer to where she was.

"What the hell is going on here?" was Touya's greeting when he stepped out of the inky blackness, the blue light bathing his face in its strange glow.

'Nice to see you, too,' she wanted to say to him but didn't.

She saw that he was angry—but it didn't make any sense to her as to _why_. His fury was out of place; she hadn't even said anything to him yet. White tilted her head to the side, frowning at him in confusion.

"Don't you dare act like you don't know what's going on," he warned and then stepped forward. He was far enough from White to give her a sense of safety from his wrath but close enough for her to see the angry tilt of his mouth.

Slowly, carefully, White crossed her arms, not wanting to incite any more anger from an ill-considered movement. "Actually, I don't know what you're talking about," she warily replied.

"_Oh come on_," groused Touya. "I've had enough of your bullshit, White." His hands swept out in an arc-like motion towards the back of the cave, gesturing to something that she clearly could not see. "Those stupid grunts? They've imprisoned the Pokémon of Electric Stone Cave! And not only that, they're also stealing the electric ores which are the only food source for the Pokémon of this cave!"

Her eyes widened at what Touya said. She had known that something strange was going was going on, but she hadn't expected _that_.

"But dammit, I should have known that you were a liar!" continued Touya, an accusing finger pointed towards her. "Is that what you were trying to do all along? Lie to me so that I would be pacified and not turn you into the authorities? I'm sure you thought I was pretty stupid, didn't you?" Touya laughed bitterly.

"I never had any intention of doing that, Touya," replied White.

"Stop it!" Touya stomped his foot on the ground in frustration, directing an enraged glare her way. "Stop lying!"

Oh for Arceus' sake… "You're acting like a child," she carped, annoyed with the boy's refusal to listen. "You'll never understand anything as long as you continue to refuse to listen to the other side of the argument."

"And I did try! I tried to understand you back in Hodomoe! But then you go behind my back and do something like _this_."

She could see that Touya was far past the point of reason—far past the point of listening with a clear state of mind. White could see this in the way that he was glaring balefully at her; frustration, hurt, and anger were the emotions that she could see in his eyes.

"For a moment I trusted you, you know? But now I know that I can't," he said, unclipping something from the belt that he always wore around his waist.

Alarmed, White felt herself take a step back despite the already large distance between them. "Touya, stop and listen to me, will you? I don't want to fight." The last sentence struck her as something that was absolutely true; despite Geechisu's order for her to battle Touya, she honestly didn't _want_ to. _But_, she thought, _if I don't, then what will Geechisu do to N?_

In the end, did she really ever have a choice?

White slowly inched her hand into her towards her pocket, keeping an eye on Touya as though he were a rabid Pokémon. Was he really that angry to want to fight her over it? She frowned slightly at the morbid thought. Of course there was the option of apologizing, but what was the point when the thing that he was angry over had absolutely nothing to do with her?

"It's kind of funny," remarked Touya, "how things don't always turn out be what you expected. Back in the Cold Storage, when I was battling your grunts, I had blurted out that I would take down Team Plasma and its king. And sure, right now I'm not battling N. But I'm pretty damn close to it."

"Touya, you don't know what you're doing," she said in an attempt to assuage his fury and hurt.

"Yes, I do," he snapped. "I'm stopping you here and now."

Quick as lightning, a bright white light shot out from the Pokéball, revealing a green, writhing snake in their wake. The Pokémon let out a customary cry and snaked her body around Touya as if to protect him from White. He gently placed a hand onto his Pokémon and gave White and expectant look. "I challenge you to a battle, White," came his voice, eerily calm and serious.

_Dammit_. She really didn't want to do this. But now she was being backed into a corner with no other choice but to fight.

Randomly, she pulled out a Pokéball in hopes that it was strong enough to fight the Jalorda. _Here goes nothing_, she thought hopelessly and released the Pokémon from its containment.

At first all she could see was a blinding white flash that illuminated the darkness of the cave and reflected off of the ores. She heard the deafening roar that reverberated off the cave walls before she even saw the Pokémon itself; but when she did, all White could manage to do was stare in a fearful sort of awe.

She saw its massive black wings first; six altogether, they moved simultaneously, their muscles stretching and contracting beneath the ebony hide of scales. Three heads came into view next; the largest one raised itself and let out a harrowing screech while the smaller heads beside it moved erratically and snapped at the air with their fangs bared. It landed on the ground, causing a huge shock to run across the ground, and swung its heads around to peer at her.

"_Human_?" the main head cackled gleefully. "_Pathetic human girl! Have you actually dared to call for me?_"

"Please," she begged, "Please fight by my side."

"_You expect me to bow down to a fragile and pathetic girl like you?"_

"I'm not asking you to be my slave; I'm asking you to help me!"

"Enough already!" Touya snapped at her and threw out his hand to point at the Sazandora. "Jalorda, use frenzy plant!"

Quick as lightning, the snake-like Pokémon let out a furious cry, her entire body glowing a bright, translucent green, and slammed her tail into the cave floor, the tip of it puncturing the ground and disappearing into the small black pit. Immediately after, the ground began to shake and quake, layers of rocks and dirt shifting violently until a large, jagged crack appeared, splitting down the floor in a horizontal line as though it were a dividing line between good and evil.

Thick, massive thorny roots shot up from the ground with whip-like '_cracks!_' and surged forward, striking Sazandora with a sense of brutality and rage. Multitudes of roots wrapped and grappled at the dragon's wings, legs, and heads, trying to bring Sazandora into a trapped position with no chance to move or escape. The smaller heads snapped furiously at the roots, trying to free themselves from their captivity, but to no avail.

Sazandora howled in pain and reared its head back; a turquoise light appeared at its mouth and blasted straight towards the jagged ceiling. The ball of energy collided harshly against the cave's structure, causing colossal stones and rocks to fall down to the ground with a thundering crash. Stunned, White twisted her head up towards the ceiling to peer at the damage and found the attack had done more harm than expected. Despite the darkness she could see the large gaping hole above them, showcasing the starlit sky and chill air. Around the hole, the rock structure was beginning to crumble and plummet down to the ground where the rest of the debris lay.

When she turned her attention back to the battle before her, White saw that Sazandora had freed itself of the roots and had launched itself into the air, its six massive wings flapping furiously. She could see that the dragon was too angry for words, and instead it screeched and howled in a hateful passion, twisting its head to and fro as if to shake off the pain.

It then drew all three heads back in preparation for another devastating attack.

"Sazandora!" she desperately called out to the raging Pokémon. "Stop it! No more—

Hell broke loose the moment the three dragon pulses struck the walls of Electric Stone Cave. The damage and destruction from the impact was uncontrollable. "Woah!" Tumbling backwards, White landed on her backside, legs curled up to the side, narrowly missing the jagged boulder that had slammed onto the spot where she had been standing. She scrambled to her feet, eyes sweeping across the destruction and falling debris and finally spotted Touya in his own predicament. He was weaving around the rocks and crumbling ceiling pieces, his Jalorda having already been returned to her Pokéball, and shouted to her above the cacophony, "White, stop your Sazandora already! It's destroying the cave's structure!"

"It's not mine!" she cried back. "And I don't know how to!" But despite her uncertainty, she tried to pacify the rampant Pokémon above her. "Sazandora, please stop!"

"The Pokéball! Use the Pokéball!"

"Wha—oh, right!" Fumbling with the capsule that was still in her hand, White finally managed to point it in Sazandora's general direction; her hands shook from exhilaration and she felt the ground shake violently when a stray silver beam of energy collided with the ground beneath her feet. "Sazandora, return!"

As if sensing the red ray heading towards it, Sazandora pumped its wings and weaved through the air, narrowly missing the return beam. Frenziedly, she aimed again only to miss her target by a long shot.

Livid and fuming, the massive dragon swung its entire body around and released a great orb of electric energy at her. White stood still in shock, unable to move away from the charge beam that was rushing straight towards her; it was at that moment that she saw her life flash before her very eyes. _Move!_ her mind screamed at her. _Move, you stupid idiot! Move_—

"Move!"

Something firm and real grabbed the back of her jacket and jerked her back, sending her legs running to Arceus knows where until she couldn't run anymore. Behind her, she felt the tremors and heard the deafening din rise into the air, intangible but so very clear.

She collapsed onto the ground, legs shaking and eyes wide. Touya was on the ground beside her, breathing hard with his hand on his chest as if to ease the pain. "Are you alright?" he gasped out but not bothering to wait for her answer. Touya look back to where she had been standing before and let out a string of curses. "_Shit_. It destroyed its Pokéball!"

Stunned, she twisted her head around to look and found that he was telling the cold hard truth. The capsule had shattered into a million pieces, bits of red and white lying helplessly on the charred, black ground. What were they going to do now?

And as she thought this, Sazandora let out another manic screech and recklessly aimed at the ground—though this time it was aiming towards nothing in particular, the attack resulting from pure insanity.

The attack landed near them—they were a far enough distance from the now scorched spot, but close enough to be able to feel the crackle of electricity in the air.

Something was wrong. White's eyes widened when she realized that the pandemonium and the din had increased to an unbearable level of noise. Her hands were shaking—but it wasn't from her erratic nerves. No, it was from something much, much worse.

White inhaled sharply and her eyes flitted downwards towards the ominous crack in the floor. She wasn't sitting on the jagged line but…_Touya_ _was_.

"No," she breathed, realizing what was about to happen. "Arceus, no. Touya, get up! Hurry!"

Touya's head spun towards her in confusion. "Huh? Wait, what are you talking about?"

Something rumbled beneath them, the clamor rising above the already deafening roars and booms.

At this moment, time slowed for White.

She saw the rocks tumbling down around them, saw Sazandora slamming its tail against the wall in a destructive rage, and saw the realization strike across the boy's face like a slap.

And then everything began to pick up speed.

The ground split open to reveal a black, unfathomable chasm; it was as though some large, invisible force had pried the land apart beneath them. The split had begun at the farther end of the room and then had quickly shifted across, slithering like a snake, under and past Touya until it hit the wall with a loud groan. Touya didn't have anytime to say anything else; already on the edge of the abyss, he lost his balance and tipped backwards into the blackness. His hands reached out towards nothing as his eyes dilated from disbelief, staring helplessly at her as he disappeared into the darkness.

White screamed hysterically, her own hands reaching out towards nothing.

He was gone. Touya was _gone_.

She fumbled to her feet, tearing off the already destroyed jacket that N had lent her, took a deep, heart shuddering breath, and dived in after him.

The air slapped at her face as she went further down into nothingness. She could barely see anything besides Touya's hazy figure in the darkness. White squinted her eyes, praying that she was close enough…_there_.

Her hands reached out towards him, slim fingers grasping his jacket sleeve and then tugging him closer to her. "Touya!" she shouted above the wind rushing past them. "Touya, are you okay?"

She received no answer to her inquisition. Frantically, she felt his head for any injuries and found something wet and sticky on the back of his skull.

_Shit_. He had probably hit his head on the jagged wall on the way down.

But what could she do now? Suddenly she felt extremely foolish for diving in after him without a plan. How could she have not thought it through properly? It wasn't as though she could _fly_.

Fly…that was it!

Struggling to keep a good hold on Touya's unconscious body, White dug her hand into her pocket and felt two objects brush against her fingers. There was no time to sit around, contemplating which one was Archeos; she could only hope for the best.

_Please, please let it be this one!_ she prayed urgently, pulling out the Pokéball and releasing the Pokémon inside.

There was a loud cry, harsh, beautiful, and clear. She blinked away the darkness from her eyes and tried to peer past the inky blackness. "Please!" she screamed into the nothingness. "Please save us!"

Something sharp slammed against her head roughly, causing White to cry out in agony. She felt the tears well up in the corners of her eyes; her sub consciousness slowed to a stand still as her vision began to fade and blur with the murkiness of the abyss.

_No. This…can't be happening…_

The throbbing in her head was starting get stronger and louder, a strange buzzing sound filling her eardrums until all she could think of was '_why are there Spears flying around in my head?'_.

She closed her eyes, felt the tears, and let the world around fade into nothingness.


	7. Fragments

Hi? *waves awkwardly and attempts to dodge flying projectiles*

I hadn't been expecting that unexpected hiatus...um yeah. Sorry that I'm not sorry? Life's been pretty hectic-not that any of you really care haha. I've been wanting to get back to writing this story, but I just haven't had the time until recently. I should be able to get back into the habit of things now, thank goodness. And even though it may seem like I've given up on Rewrite Our Fallacy, don't worry, I definitely haven't given up-I'm just really slow and busy. This story **_will_** have that completion status! Eventually.

And let's see who can guess what Pokemon White has! Though I would think it would be fairly obvious, considering my other stories. Hah.

Sorry for the short and crappy chapter though.

Fukiyose City=Mistralton City

Hachiku=Brycen

Kabigon=Snorlax

* * *

><p>He felt the tremors before he heard the thundering crash.<p>

The ground shook violently, causing the surroundings to wave about precariously. The trees seemed to lose their rigid structure, their solid trunks now spineless figures that were barely rooted to the ground. The inhabitants of the forest area let out cries of fear and scurried off in search of a safe haven.

In front of him, the ancient, grand tower moaned piteously from the violent shaking of its foundations; it dangerously swayed from side to side, loose pieces of stone and gravel crumbling to the ground.

Something frightening curled up in his stomach, a tight and uncomfortable thrumming that made his blood run cold. Beside him, Zorua flitted around his legs nervously, his tail twitching to a fro as if trying to pinpoint something in the air. With flattened ears, the Pokemon pointed his noise up into the air and peered at the ominous image in the distance. "_N..._," he began warily, "_look past the radio tower. Do you see that huge cloud of dust? There's something in it_."

Following Zorua's line of vision, N trained his eyes to the residues of the explosion in the air; if he had to guess where it had happened—his fingers curled in fear at the prospect of it—the explosion (and probably the large tremor as well) most likely originated near or even _in_ the Electric Stone Cave. His thoughts passed over to White. Was she okay? What had happened to her? Was she hurt in the explosion? Was she the _cause_ of it?

Suddenly, despite the distance between him and the cloud of smoke and dust in the distance, a shrill and vociferous cry echoed throughout the air and pierced his eardrums. His hands quickly reached up to cover his ears, but he kept his eyes wide open as the smoke began to clear and the hulking figure of a flying Pokemon shot out of it. N could barely make out the details of it, but he could at least affirm that it was some sort of dragon type.

But what was a dragon doing near a cave full of electric type Pokemon? This wasn't the kind of habitat for dragon Pokemon…unless it was one of the Pokemon handed over to White. Heart beating wildly in his chest, N lowered his hand and stared at the ominous figure of the dragon in the distance. He heard it let out a gleeful cackle, a shriek that would haunt him for days on end, and let out a harrowing roar.

But that was the last thing he heard from the Pokemon before it shot off into the distance.

Instinctively, his feet began moving in the direction of the cave.

"Lord N," said a member of the trinity. "Where are you going?"

N paused, his eyes flickering back to the three figures behind him, and replied, "I want to see White." It was a simple statement; it was something that was seemingly trite and selfish. But there was so much more meaning behind those words than he would let on.

He needed to make sure that White was safe—that she was fine and out of harm's way. He wasn't simply worried—he was absolutely petrified by the possibility of White being hurt. If something terrible happened to her, he wasn't sure how he would be able to move on.

Perhaps it was dependency, but after all those years of being together, the idea of a future without his best friend was outlandish and absurd. It was like trying to force a Magikarp to live on land without water—it just wasn't possible.

He began to move again, but this time he was stopped when a firm, solid hand grasped his shoulder—it wasn't a tight or harsh grip, but N still flinched anyways.

"You have a meeting with Geechisu, Lord N. Did you forget?"

N's shoulders slumped. But even knowing that he would be fighting a losing battle, he protested anyway. "But White—

"I will go to check on Lady Touko and bring her back with me. There's no need to worry."

Yes, there _was_ a need to worry. Why couldn't they see that?

"But—

"Geechisu is expecting you," is all he said before letting go of N's shoulder and brushing past him with a look of indifference.

"_N, lets go,_" prompted Zorua. "_It's going to be all right._"

_No it won't_, he couldn't' help but think and turned back to the Tower of Heaven's entrance with reluctance. The world had stopped shaking, but in his mind's eye, he could still see the tower swaying as though it was about to fall over.

A sigh escaped from him, the worry overwhelming his nerves; he didn't have much of a choice in the matter, but he might as well go along with it when there was nothing else to lose.

o

He couldn't remember exactly what he had been thinking or doing as he sat on the stone steps of the Tower of Heaven waiting for White to come back. What he did remember though was the nervous anticipation coiling and then unfurling in his gut. He remembered the sweaty palms and the hammering heart.

All he could see was darkness.

The remaining two of the trinity were standing a respectful distance away from him. But even if they had been breathing down his neck in an unnerving manner, N couldn't have found the sense to care.

Something shifted in the darkness, a change in the wind, the sudden stillness of the forest's inhabitants. N squinted his eyes to adjust to the lack of light and stared aimlessly, though expectant, into the blackness of the night. From his peripheral vision, N saw Zorua's ears twitch at the sudden yet imperceptible shift in noise.

A swift, chill gust of wind swept through the forest at that moment, whistling eerily as though announcing an abnormal presence. N held his breath and slowly began to stand as he watched the inky blackness of the forest shadows shift to reveal a lithe, tall figure in the distance.

"Lord N," came the familiar voice as the figure approached and kneeled in front of him.

His eyes desperately searched the surroundings for any sign of the only person he cared to see; he refused to acknowledge the somber look of the man's eyes in front of him.

"I'm sorry," the subordinate continued and rose to a stand, successfully blocking N's view from the rest of the forest.

_No you're not._

"Where's White?" he nearly screamed. A million thoughts raced through his head, each one worse the last. And he desperately wished that the horrible, horrible thoughts would just _go away_. In a more subdued yet desperate voice: "Where is she?"

"I'm sorry," the man repeated to N.

_No._

"Lord N—

_Shut up shut up shut up shut up!_

Something white caught N's eyes. He saw the ragged fabric catch the moonlight and felt his heart sputter and die.

—Lady Touko is dead."

o

They were supposed to be together forever.

"Dammit," he muttered and buried his head into his hands as if to bury the tears threatening to spill. It was a stupid notion to believe—he knew that way before…well, before _it_ happened.

But the absence of _her_—and when had it started to hurt to even _think_ her name?—made the foolishness of his childish beliefs all the more clear.

And somehow everything seemed so damned _meaningless_.He felt like wreck, twisted and mangled, unable to even gather the broken pieces of his rationality let alone try to piece it back together.

White would have been able to do it, a traitorous voice whispers into his ears, cruel and venomous like death itself.

_Arceus_, why was he so damned pathetic?

"_Well, you know,_" Zorua said in that ever sardonic tone of his, "_nothing lasts forever, N._"

o

"Who was the trainer she was supposed to battle?"

"Lord N…I'm not sure if Geechisu wants you to know—

"_Tell me!_"

The trio paused in their tedious activities to glance at each other with uncertainty.

He wanted to know. He _needed_ to know.

How else was he supposed to get any closure?

One of the members cleared his throat and turned to look at N with pitying eyes—but N didn't want pity. He just wanted to stop the pain.

"The trainer's name is—_was _Touya."

The pain didn't stop—instead it grew worse, encompassing all sorts of horrid emotions like anger and betrayal.

He heard Touya's jovial laughter echo in his head—but he couldn't bear to associate the noise with something good any longer. Now his laughter sounded like the heavy iron bells that were rung at a funeral.

But why Touya? Why did it always have to be the people he truly did care about?

And it may have been unfair, but now all he could feel was anger towards his dead friend.

It was because of Touya that White died.

N could practically see Touya roll in his debris-filled grave underneath the cave floors.

So much for closure, he bitterly thought.

o

"How are you, Lord N?" came Geechisu's eerily cheerful voice over the speaker of the Xtransceiver.

N knew that it was all just formalities though—Geechisu had never cared for his well-being before, so why start now?

N gave him an empty smile—not that Geechisu would know the difference—and replied, "I'm fine. I've gained the Jet Badge. I will be leaving Fukiyose City soon."

"Good, good. Don't forget that I will be meeting with you again at Dragonspiral Tower after you defeat Hachiku."

"Yes, of course. Have the researchers found any more clues about the Light or Dark Stone?"

Geechisu cleared his throat at this and said, "Perhaps; none of them are entirely sure what to make of the evidence though. When we meet again at Dragonspiral Tower, I will give you the full report."

"Alright." Honestly what else could he say or ask about? Somehow everything had become so insipid and tedious ever since…ever since he started traveling alone. He knew that he should've cared more…but dammit, he needed time to _mourn_.

N blinked sluggishly at the screen in front of him. Had Geechisu said something? The sage _was_ giving him a strange, expectant look.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" he mumbled to the screen.

"I said, 'I heard about Lady Touko's…passing.'"

N averted his gaze to the ground as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "Right."

"You have my condolences, Lord N."

"…thanks."

He heard Geechisu sigh in exasperation—anger welled up inside him, because how dare he, how _dare he_ act as if his painful loss was _stupid_ and _childish_—and then:

"Try not to get too distracted, N."

_Click_.

Then there was silence.

N hurled the Xtransceiver with all of his anger and strength towards the undergrowth. The sound of the machinery breaking sounded like the sickening snap of bones—he couldn't help but smile cruelly at the sound.

The satisfaction only lasted for a handful of seconds, though.

He felt his mouth pull downwards in angry frustration as grief overcame him.

It wasn't fair.

None of it was.

Why did it have to be White? Why did it have to be Touya? Why did they have to _die_?

Why did everything have to hurt _so much_?

OoO

_Fear struck her body like the flashing whip above her, and she couldn't control herself from sobbing even louder than before._

_She shouldn't talk—she really shouldn't. She shoudln't say anything. Yes, yes. If she did that, then everything would be fine—neither she nor N would be hurt anymore. This was the only way to go about things—that much she was sure of._

_She heard the weapon slice through the air like a warning whistle before the pain caused the world to explode in a brilliant flash of white. _

_The crack of the whip was sharp and full of vengeance. _

_And as her vision righted itself again, the world slowly piecing disjointed halves together for the umpteenth time, she felt that the pain had branded its mark onto her skin, the struck area smartly stinging even after the whip had gone away._

_She briefly let her mind wander and hoped that N was alright._

_The crack of the whip sang loudly in her ears not a moment longer after her brief respite._

Her screams brought her consciousness back to reality.

The first sensation she felt was…_wetness_?

It wasn't painful (though she could still feel the distant pain from the whip ghost over her skin, like a half-realized whisper—but that was a long, long time ago wasn't it?) but it was strange and uncomfortable nonetheless. Why did it feel like her body was soaked with (or what she hoped was) water?

And why was everything so dark?

Hesitantly, she waggled her fingers to see if they were still working properly. They were stiff from lack of use most likely, but it wasn't anything to worry about. Next she tried her toes; she curled them in on themselves and heard them pop slightly.

Slowly, White twitched, wiggled, and shifted each and every one of her limbs to make sure none of them were broken. And it was a relief to find that her all body parts were still intact, though some were somewhat sore and sluggish.

Okay, she thought. Everything _feels_ fine. Probably.

But the one thing that continued to unnerve her was the perpetual darkness that plagued her vision. Where was she? What happened?

She had been at Electric Stone Cave, waiting…what had she been waiting for? It was a person, that much she was sure of.

"_What the hell is going on here?"_

She felt her body jerk at the sudden and incensed voice inside her head, replaying over and over like a broken record.

"…_I should have known that you were a liar!"_

"…_did try! I tried to understand you back in Hodomoe! But then you go behind my back and do something like __**this**__."_

"_For a moment I trusted you, you know? But now I know that I can't."_

Why was the voice so angry at her? Why couldn't he stop screaming? Did she do something wrong? If she did, then…then…

"_Touya, stop and listen to me, will you? I don't want to fight."_

And then the memories started to come back all at once, crashing into her like a tidal wave; it grappled at her, her arms and legs, pulling her down, down, down. The voices were so vociferous, the fear and the panic so loud in her ears—it felt as though she was reliving it all over again.

She remembered _everything_.

She remembered her world crashing down on her, the apocalypse waiting to happen.

She remembered the sheer desperation that overtook her body and hurled her body over the edge of the abyss.

She remembered hearing a Pokémon cry over the pounding adrenaline before blacking out completely.

But then what had happened after?

Her heart stopped completely at the next thought.

Where was Touya?

Was she dead?

Something cold and slick pressed against her neck.

Was this what death felt like?

The strange sensation lingered against her skin for a moment longer before something warm _and very much alive_ darted out and slid against her neck.

White jerked her body upwards and let out a blood curdling scream.

And suddenly the world came into focus.

She blinked.

Wait…had her eyes been closed the whole time?

She mentally slapped herself upside the head. Great.

"_Are you alright?_"

The low, rumbling voice had come from behind her and White spun her torso around swiftly to look for the source. Eyes as bright as amber stared openly at her. She felt herself squeak and scrambled away from the heavy gaze with all the grace of a Kabigon.

"_I'm sorry_," the Pokémon said quietly, tilting his armored head to the side in pure befuddlement. "_Did I frighten you?_"

"_I…um..._," was all she could manage at that moment as she tried to convince her hand that _**no**__, her heart was not going to pop out, so could it please let go of her shirt because it was kind of choking her_. White cleared her throat and nearly choked on air. She tried again. "_No, I was…I was just a little startled._"

The understatement of the year, apparently.

The Pokémon was lying down on his forearms and hind legs, its tail fanned out behind it; he lay his head down onto his paws and continued to stare at her as though she was an alien species. "_I see_," was all he said.

"_D-did you save me?_" she prodded tentatively, unsure of what else to say.

"_I suppose that you could call it that_," he replied with a blank look.

She replied intelligently, "_Huh?_"

The Pokémon shifted slightly and lifted his head to properly address her. "_It was more like repaying a debt long overdue._" Upon seeing the stupefied look on her face, he continued in elaboration, "_If it hadn't been for you I would have lived the rest of my days stuck in that Poké Ball, forgotten and alone. You were the only one who found me._"

"_You mean back in the Cold Storage?_" In her amazement, she let her hand drop from her chest. "_That was your Poké Ball?_"

"_And you were the girl who sat like a vegetable on the floor in a thin shirt and a pair of shorts._"

She felt her face light up in embarrassment and immediately averted her gaze preoccupied herself with examining her surroundings.

"_Right_," she mumbled and cleared her throat. Her gaze flickered back to the Pokémon staring at her as if she had grown an extra head. "_Well t-thanks. For um, saving me_."

"_I managed to save your friend as well._"

White's head jerked, her thoughts immediately racing back to N. "_My friend? Y-you mean N—no, wait! Touya? Do you mean Touya?_"

"_Is that what you call him?_" The creature gestured his head to something behind her.

And there he was, disheveled, bloody, and practically dead to the world. In her shock and desperation, her hand slipped out from underneath her when she tried to scramble towards his prone figure. "Shit!" came her muffled cry, her face buried into the sandy ground beneath her. Shakily, White lifted herself up and slowly crawled towards Touya with the utmost caution as if expecting him to spring up from his position and lash out at her. "Touya?" she called out softly and stretched out a wary hand to grasp his shoulder. She repeated his name again but was met with silence. When she peered closer at him she saw the steady but slow rise of his chest, heard the faint sounds of his miraculous breathing.

"Thank Arceus," she breathed out in relief.

"_I was lucky that there was an underground river in the cave, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do anything to help_," a quiet voice said behind her.

"_A river?_" she asked, her head swiveling around to face the Pokémon.

"_You didn't know?_" he questioned, nose and white whiskers twitching in confusion. "_Then why did you call me out? Did you think I could fly?_"

"_I—well, I thought that you were Archeos_," was her weak explanation as her hand fumbled along her belt for the right Poké Ball to prove her point. "_I didn't mean to call you out—I mean I'm grateful but…huh?_"

Her eyes widened when she brought the surprisingly light capsule to her eyes for a closer inspection. It was…empty? And even when she racked her brain to remember what she had done with Archeos' capsule, she came up empty. She was absolutely sure that she had never released the Pokémon before; but if that were the case, then why was the ball empty?

Had it been that way all along?

White frowned when the strange thought occurred to her—she remembered during one of her musings while waiting in the cave that one of the Poké Balls had been lighter—almost weightless. She had passed it off for a mere difference in weight between the two Pokémon, but as she began to piece things together, the realization that maybe, just maybe there was something more to all of this struck her—and maybe it was something so much darker and sinister than she would have ever expected.

"A setup?" she murmured to herself, heart racing inside her chest. It couldn't be…could it?

A pained moan cut across her thoughts and White jerked her head towards Touya, her eyes wide with anticipation.

His eyelids twitched and fluttered as his consciousness slowly came back to him; his breathing quickened; his mouth moved to shape fathomless words. Worriedly, White leaned forward on her hands, head leaning over his so that it cast a shadow over his face, and asked hopefully, "Touya?"

Touya's eyes cracked open slightly, amber irises staring dazedly at her; for a moment they stared at each other, he with drunken stupor and she with tired relief.

Then he rasped out, "Pretty sure I died; I can't really tell if I'm in heaven or hell though."

Something stirred in her chest—relief, exasperation, hope, and warmth all rolled into one huge mess of choking, gasping, and tearful sobs. Through her tears, she saw his eyes widen in shock and panic and she nearly laughed out loud when he began to fumble with his words in an attempt to stop her crying. "Aw, c-come on! Don't cry, White! I didn't mean anything by it—I was only joking—please don't cry…I'm not good with crying girls, you know. Ugh—don't tell me I really died and went to hell!"

And suddenly her body was moving forward of its own volition; she ignored his shock and yelp of protest, ignored how strange it must have seemed to Touya, pushed away the embarrassment, and threw herself onto him, wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into the crook of his neck. "Stupid," she hiccupped through her sobs, "You're so stupid!"

He was silent for a moment. And then she felt hands tentatively rest themselves on her back, one hand awkwardly patting her shoulder.

She sobbed harder in response.


End file.
